


Jade Potter

by KitJTD1993



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Compliant, Eventual Romance, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Falling In Love, Friendship, Hogwarts, Love, Marauders' Era, Percy Weasley/original male character, Severus Snape Has a Heart, Smut, james potter sister, severus snape needs to be happy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-08
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2019-07-28 06:33:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 53
Words: 173,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16236152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KitJTD1993/pseuds/KitJTD1993
Summary: James Potters twin sister Jade was so similar and yet so different. Offered an auror job before even graduating, being tortured by Death Eaters and watching friends and family die had changed her. After the blood bond made by Lilly’s death meant that she couldn’t raise harry, or have any contact until school, Jade waited until a teaching position came up at Hogwarts to keep an eye on him.Can she ever get over her past, or keep harry safe? How does harry feel about an aunt he never met, who turns up in his second year, spent time in Azkaban for underage magic, and holds some of the darkest secrets. Oh, and what the hell is her past with a certain potions Professor?





	1. Chapter 1

**This is sort of an introduction chapter, so a little short and quick to set things up. Keep with it people!**

**\--------------**

 

Harry had heard his aunt and uncle talk about ‘your aunt who never wanted you’ and ‘your fathers useless sister who didn’t want you either’ and had heard the name Jade once or twice but after years and years of no contact, no word, no visit, no message, no letters, and nothing, Harry had given up, not even giving his fathers sister a second thought. It was when Hagrid had whisked him off to Diagon Alley before his first year that Harry had had any real information about the elusive aunt of his.

The half giant had motioned to what appeared to be apartments above some of the shops on the street as they headed to get his robes measured and cheerily said “and up there, the balcony with the flowers, that’s where your aunt Jade lives” Harry had practically stopped in his tracks

“she’s...she’s a witch?”

Hagrid had nodded

“yes, she’s not there at the moment though, off tracking dark wizards somewhere, she wanted desperately to be the one to get your from the Dursely’s but she had a lead on the people who helped hurt your parents and, well, I can’t say much but she isn’t allowed to return yet” Harry had glanced up at the balcony, seeing the dark windows behind it, clearly leading to an empty, unoccupied house.

“She hunts dark wizards?” “Yeah. She’s very good at it, got in a few scrapes as well. She’s got in a lot of trouble you know, trying to check up on you with the Dursely’s, got cautioned by the minister for magic himself once”

“She tried to see me?”

Hagrid smiled down at the young boy “yes. She was banned from contacting you, but Jade’s never been one for the rules. She watched y’ from a distance, every Christmas, every birthday. She’s been through a lot, an awful lot, life’s not been easy on Jade, and when she’s back, she’ll be so happy to see you”

 

Harry got the impression quite quickly that Jade was fairly well known in the magical world, though it seemed his scar meant more or less the same thing. At Gringott’s the moody goblin that had taken harry to his vault had spent a good ten minutes muttering ‘and you can tell your aunt that I don’t care if she’s off in the middle of Merlin knows where, chasing whoever it is this time, she can’t keep send form A145QQS by owl, it has to be done in person. She knows that, I’ve told her enough times, I don’t care how famous she is’. Harry hadn’t said anything, not really sure what the response was to that. When they had gone to Olivander’s for his wand, he had tried an oak wand that the wizard had handed him.

‘Oak, your aunt has an oak wand, represents strength, loyalty, and perseverance through good and bad. Unicorn hair core, very powerful wand for a powerful witch. Now, that one won’t do Mr Potter, shall we try another?’.

 

 

It was during his first disastrous potions lesson in his first year that Snape had first given any indication that he had known Harry's aunt.

It was after not knowing yet another answer that the moody potions professor had sniped “Mr Potter, you appear to be every bit as useless as your father was at potions. What a shame your aunt didn’t gift you a few brain cells”

“You know my aunt?”

Snape didn’t change his expression and just frowned a little deeper if possible “she is a world renowned auror. Everyone knows”

That wasn’t entirely true. Obviously everyone had heard of her. Not only was her work as an auror well known, what with what happened to the Prewett twins and her torture well documented in the press, she was also the twins sister of the tragic James Potter, which was a story every witch and wizard in every country knew. The last think Snape wanted to admit was that he actually had a much longer, more tangled history with the woman, the entirety of which he hoped he’d never have the Potter boy find out.

 

 

It wasn't too long after Christmas that Harry had been reading the Prophet over breakfast and had scanned over to an article that caught his eye:

_Jade Greenlake (formerly known as Potter) has returned from an assignment with the Department of Mysteries, and four unnamed wizards have been sent to Azkaban as a result of the work._  
  
_Geeenlake has been held in the Intensive Care ward of the Serious Maladies wing of St Mungo’s Hospital. Her condition is understood to be ‘improving’ but there is no word on whether she will be fit to return to active duty any time soon. However, it is understood that she is in a serious, critical condition._  
  
_Auror Greenlake previously had an extended period of time off after her torture with dark magic at the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange, in an attack that also killed two of her best friends. The injuries occurred only a few weeks before her twin brother James and his wife Lily Potter were killed by You Know Who in an attack that somehow was survived by their infant son Harry._

_Jade Geeenlake fought for the custody of her nephew Harry, but whilst not released to the public, it is understood that there were extenuating reasons that young Harry was placed with his mothers muggle family._  
_After this happened Greenlake was forced to take time off to recover, though she returned to duties before the recommended time was over._  
_Greenlake is credited with being the first student ever approached to join the Auror department, rather than their standard application procedure, and she joined the department straight out of Hogwarts._  
_Kingsley Shaklebolt declined to comment at the time we went to press._

 

Harry looked over it several times, seeing that Jade was back in the country, but also that she was seriously injured. Harry had asked Hagrid about the situation and he said he would ask around for any information. He had spoken to Harry after class the following day, telling him that Jade was going to pull through, but she had been cursed quite badly bringing in a Dark Wizard from wherever in Europe she had been - the location was still a secret- but that a previous injury meant it was taking a long time to heal, and she would be in hospital for most likely a few months.

 

 

Three weeks before the end of his first year Harry had received a letter, his name written in a cursive, black ink that he didn't recognise.

Inside was a letter in the same handwriting that he quickly read over:

  
_‘Harry,_  
  
_I have wanted to speak to you ever since you started in September at Hogwarts. I assume you’ve heard enough about me from your teachers, specifically Dumbledore, about what I have been up to and why I couldn’t come and see you earlier. I have spent so many years struggling to comprehend how to live my life whilst you lived yours with Lilly’s sister._  
_I never knew them myself -they weren’t at your parents wedding- but I saw that they weren’t treating you properly but every time I tried to get any nearer to you, the ministry found out, and if I was sent away then I would never be able to see you._  
_I took on a task a year ago to track down some bad people and unfortunately I had to miss your first day at school. I spent 11 years dreaming about waving you off at platform 9 3/4 and then I missed it. It’s funny how life plays these tricks on you._  
  
  
_Dumbledore has an item that has been in our family for generations. I haven’t any need of it, I’ve got my own ways of not being seen, but I know you have it, and I hope you used it to get up to as much mischief as James and I used to at your age. Use it wisely, not everyone gets to play with invisibility cloaks!_  
  
_I will see you the second I am allowed out of this stupid hospital_  
_All my love_  
_Jade_

  
  


\--------------------

Sorry for the patchy first chapter, next chapter we meet Jade, and she sees the Weasley's, Harry and Snape.

 


	2. Chapter 2

In room 508 at St Mungo’s was a young woman with dark hair and several horrendous injuries. She had changed her surname to Greenlake - her mother’s maiden name- years ago in Hogwarts, but everyone in the Wizarding world knew who she was.

Jade Potter.

The surname change had been simply because of the fact she and frank Longbottom had helped Professor sprout with a paper she was having published about Mandrake’s in their fourth year. Jade has been well aware how well known the Potter name was. This was of course years before the infamous Harry Potter came along, but her family were shockingly wealthy inventors. That meant that virtually everyone knew the name, and so when Professor Sprout has said she would credit her and Frank on the research paper, Jade had asked to use her mothers surname.

It had also helped because by that time James was getting into such bad and frequent trouble and her father was virtually a celebrity that it meant no one would ever mistake her success for any family influence. The potters were probably as wealthy as the Malfoy’s and probably had purer blood, although they weren’t bothered at all by blood purity and thought it was ridiculous.

She had continued to go by Greenlake in all work outside of Hogwarts, and by the time she had graduated had already changed her name legally. Of course, the way she had joined the auror department, the torture at the hands of a death eater and especially the three months in Azkaban she had served were all heavily documented in the Daily Prophet, always referencing her as ‘Jade Greenlake (formerly Potter) though it wasn’t needed by now.

Jade had never liked the fact that she had been a ‘poster girl’ for the Ministry and the Department of Mysteries. It was partly because of her surname, even if she was a Greenlake now and not a Potter, that was how everyone still saw her.

Partially, it was because she was very attractive, and most of the senior aurors were double her age or considerably less attractive. Jade had never agreed to most of their publicity, but didn’t have the energy most of the time to fight it.

She was barely in her 30’s, only around 5 foot 5, with pale skin, freckles over the bridge of her nose and over her high cheekbones, dark blue eyes, long curly dark brown hair, and a slim, toned body. Jade had a wide, kind smile that usually lit up a room, at least enough to distract them from the pain behind her eyes, or the twisted scarring in her shoulder.

Jade blinked her eyes open blearily and noticed immediately she was in a hospital room and exhaled gratefully when she realised it was a Wizarding hospital and not a muggle one, judging by the fact that the pads on her chest were attached to a monitor that was floating beside her bed, two feet off the ground. She blinked again to try and clear the fog in her brain and spotted the figure sat in the chair beside her bed and smiled gently at the familiar figure in his purple robes.

“Kingsley, have you been watching me sleep?”

He smirked “you’ve been coming around for about four hours. The healers called me. Do you want some water?” She shook her head and glanced down at herself, seeing that the burns that had extended up her arms had gone

“they’re bloody good here aren’t they. How long have I been out? Is the school term still going?”

“You’ve been out a long time J, it’s the summer holidays. Do you remember anything from the last few weeks?”

“No-?”

“You were lucid for a few days and you sent off a ton of letters to various places and were shouting about the Daily Prophet being a load of shit, but then you got pretty sick again and they had to sedate you. You’ve been out ever since”

She leant her head back against the pillow with a frustrated groan “he’s back with the fucking Dursley’s isn’t he?”

Kingsely didn’t have to ask to clarify who she meant, they spoke about Harry regularly.

“Yes, you know he has to. You’ll be out of here soon enough” Jade looked sadly over at her boss

“I think I’m getting too old for this shit Kings”

“You’re 30 years old, you’re still one of the youngest senior aurors”

“You know what I mean” Kingsley simply nodded, knowing this probably wasn’t the time to discuss career prospects with his staff when they were still slightly out of it after a prolonged time in hospital following yet another traumatic injury.

“You’ll be glad to know the Chudley Cannons absolutely crushed Puddlemere United in the final”

“Finally some good news”

 

Jade hadn’t expressly asked not to have visitors but the staff had sort of assumed, knowing what she had been like in previous visits.

They had turned a few people away, but when a silver haired wizard had arrived, they had shown him right to her room.

Dumbledore has knocked first and heard a rather irritable “unless you’re bringing food then go away” and had laughed a little as he opened the door.

Jade had looked a little surprised “Uh, Albus, hi, sorry about that I-“ He pulled a bag of sweets out of a pocket and handed them to her, chuckling as she opened the packet and practically inhaled some of the fudge.

Dumbledore looked at the girl with a kind smile. He’d seen her go through an awful lot since she had come to Hogwarts as a quiet, skinny little 11 year old who had been overshadowed by her noisy twin brother from day one. Not that she had been perfect by any means, rebellious but clever and studious enough that teachers had allowed her to get away with a lot more. Minerva always called Jade her ‘biggest triumph’ though she hadn’t been so thrilled when Jade had admitted and been charged with underage animagi transformation and in her 20’s had spent three months in Azkaban.

Everyone had agreed it was a ridiculous charge considering it wasn’t exactly murder, she had simply admitted to becoming an animagi underage, which was more impressive than it was punishable to most people.

The fact that she had left Azkaban on the Wednesday, and had been seen on the Thursday in the Auror office, planning a raid on Death Eaters with the Prewett brothers and Mad Eye Moody meant that most people had forgiven her fairly quickly. Even the usually unforgiving general public.

Jade looked tired and pale but otherwise fine. She was dressed in black leggings and a grey vest top, which showed the unfortunate scarring on her right shoulder and collarbone. This was an old injury however and nothing to do with her most recent death eater encounter. This one has been prolonged, vicious, and had intended to kill her, coming closer than anyone had thought it was possible to be brought back from. The wound was dark magic, which meant that it would never heal properly, though Dumbledore did notice that it looked a lot calmer and less painful than usual.

“Your scarring is looking better. Did you find a spell to help?”

“Potions”

“Ah. Severus?”

“Yes”

“That’s kind of him” Jade said nothing, holding the older wizards eyes intently before glancing at her hands distractedly.

“Well, as much as I love a social visit, I know you didn’t come here to chat about my scars or about Severus, so, spit it out Albus” He laughed lightly before sitting on the end of her bed

“well, I know you are desperate to see your nephew, and Harry has asked enough questions about you this year that I know he wants to meet you. I assume you’ve heard that Professor Sprout will be leaving us this year?” Jade half nodded, it was in her head somewhere but not exactly important information to her.

“Yeah?”

“She’s going to be working with the healers here. Something of a research position. She is looking to spend more time with her grandchildren and it’s far more flexible hours here in St Mungo’s than it is at Hogwarts. As such, we have a vacant herbology teacher position” Jade still looked blank like she was expecting to hear more information and just looked confused before Dumbledore continued.

“I assume you remember you were one of the best herbology students we ever had”

“Albus... I can’t teach, and I can’t teach herbology”

“Why ever not?”

“Uh, well I’m an auror for one. Kingsley and Moody will literally never allow it, also, isn’t it a bit odd, a senior auror teaching herbology, rather than Defence against the dark arts?” Albus smiled kindly again, head to one side as he surveyed the twisted scarring on Jade’s shoulder, the bandages still on her arms, and the tired, haunted look behind her eyes.

“Aren’t you tired of all of this now?” Jade opened her mouth to say something and closed it again, realising she didn’t have a response to that.

 

After Fred, George and Ron had arrived at the Dursley’s house in a flying car to break him out and take him back to the Burrow, Harry had somewhat thought that would be the strangest part of his week. That was until the following morning when he was sat at breakfast and Molly had smiled kindly at him (after shouting at her own sons about using a flying car to go to Surrey) and said

“Harry dear, there’s someone outside to meet you”

“Who?” Molly and Arthur had just shared amused knowing looks and Arthur had just said “your new Herbology teacher. Down the end of the garden, on you go Harry”

Harry wasn’t really sure what he was expecting. ‘Your new herbology teacher’ didn’t really give him much information, nor explain everyone’s expressions as he had gone out into the Burrow’s garden.

There was a young woman sat on the grass down on the embankment that led to the flat area they used to play quidditch. At the sound of footsteps she turned around, and there was a small gasp as she saw him.

Harry knew immediately who she must be. She was petite and slim, wearing dark grey jeans and an Ireland quidditch t-shirt with a black unzipped hoodie. Her hair was lighter but she was the splitting image of the pictures Harry had seen of his father and his twin sister from the old Gryffindor Quidditch team pictures. She looked a lot like his father had when he was younger, and the way her face crumpled when she saw him told him everything.

Her voice cracked and she said “h-harry?” Before pulling him in for a hug that they both desperately needed. She held him tightly and said quietly

“I’ve waited too long for this” Harry hugged her back and didn’t let go for a long time. They had hugged for a long time before Jade had pulled back, tear tracks clear on her face that she quickly wiped with a sleeve.

“Sorry, I just... Ive been waiting a long time for this and now you’re here... and you look so much like James it’s jut a little... startling”

“Everyone says I look like him but I have mums eyes” Jade smiled sadly “yes, yeah I’d say that’s right. I uh, I intended to come and get you and be the one to take you to Diagon Alley But Hagrid had to do it as I was... well I can’t say where I was but I work for the Ministry, and we thought I’d be a few weeks, then I could come and see you at Hogwarts, but, well, things got pretty bad and I couldn’t get out” “I read in the Prophet about it”

“Yes, though I’d assume they got half of it wrong. I was brought back but I’ve been out of it in St Mungo’s since then. I wasn’t meant to be released until tomorrow but” she shrugged “when Arthur told me three of his kids had busted you out of the Dursley’s I just had to come and see you”

Harry swallowed, not sure how to ask this question but started “I need to ask-“ She cut him off “you want to know why I didn’t raise you don’t you?” He nodded and She sighed

“You still don’t understand the protection your mother left you do you?” He gently shook his head and she scratched her chin, thinking how to phrase it best. “Harry, when Voldemort came to the house, James was killed immediately, then he headed upstairs to your nursery. Lilly was told if she stepped aside and let him kill you, then she would survive. Obviously Lilly refused, knowing she was about to die but her baby would survive. You know from the scar on your head that the protection worked. After that, when I found out... Sirius told me... I wanted to take you in but there was an obvious issue”

Harry looked blank and she continued.

“If James had been the one who had been asked to step aside, then I could have completed the charm. It’s called a blood bond, that’s what kept you safe, someone related to the person who made the sacrifice taking you in- that is what completed it. If I had taken you in, you wouldn’t have been safe. Voldemort could have killed you a hundred times since then, a death eater, anyone could have hurt you... I gave up my nephew for a chance to save his life”

Harry looked lost and Jade wiped her eye slightly before a tear dropped to her cheek. “I was given an official notice not to contact you. I saw you though, I watched you so many times. Every Halloween on the anniversary of when your parents... every one of your birthdays, every single one I was there, in the background... I was cautioned by the ministry six times in total, there were a lot of times, but obviously I managed to sneak past enough times...”

 

They spoke for a long time, sat side by side on the grass, looking out over the peaceful surroundings at the Burrow. It was a long time later when the two Potter’s traipsed back in to the kitchen, seeing a hive of activity as usual, with lots of redheads moving around noisily and Molly glanced up from the pot she was stirring.

“I’m glad you two have finally managed to meet. Jade has been talking about you for a long time”

“Molly has there been anything from the Ministry about the flying car?” Arthur was sat reading the Prophet and made a face

“they’re not thrilled, but I don’t think they’re entirely sure what happened”

“Misuse of magic, it will be with McManus. Don’t worry I’ll head to the ministry later and ‘have a word with him’ to drop it. He’s still scared of me after what happened with Ennis Sandford” Arthur laughed and Molly looked displeased as Fred asked “what happened?”

Jade tried to hold a laugh in “nothing, nothing at all” Molly just rolled her eyes in exasperation “you never change do you dear. Oh it’s good to see you again, will you be staying for lunch?” “Oh no Molly it’s fine I don’t want to-“

“Stop arguing with me, your Harry’s family, and I’ve known you for long enough. Come on, help the twins with the cutlery will you- who knows that they’re up to”

Harry looked over the table during the noisy lunch and saw Jade and Arthur Weasley talking quietly and listened to the conversation.

“Yes but did you think maybe an additional levitating charm would help?”

“I don’t know Arthur, get it flying isn’t the issue they said, steering is. Maybe there’s a charm we could-“ Molly Weasley called over the table

“you two had better not be discussing how to ‘improve’ that car!”

Arthur and Jade looked up with innocent expressions and she grinned “who? Me? Nope, uh, just telling Arthur how to disable the charms”

“You know I don’t believe that for a minute” Jade just shrugged and winked at Harry.

Jade had apperated to the Ministry after lunch and came back about an hour later with a satisfied smirk, saying that the kids wouldn’t face any repercussions for the flying car, though she wouldn’t explain exactly what she had said to the investigator, she had quite clearly ‘pulled rank’ as a senior auror against a junior investigator in a smaller department. Molly had insisted she stay for dinner and they had all sat around happily chatting, like a giant family.

After dinner Jade had helped Molly clear up and then had gone to ‘look at the flying car to stop it flying’ with Arthur, though they were clearly trying get it to work more efficiently. After that Harry went out into the garden and saw his aunt looking up at the starry night sky thoughtfully, hands in her pockets.

“Are you okay?” She smiled a little sadly, the smile not meeting her eyes.

“Just thinking. It’s strange being here with you, looking so much like James, and then Fred and George look just like their uncles, Molly’s brothers... it’s a bit overwhelming. Feels like I’ve walked back in time”

“You know Mr’s Weasley’s brothers? Ron never mentioned...”

Jade sighed “they died” “You were good friends?” She sighed sadly “yes. They were fantastic Aurors, two of the best wizards of their time- two of my best friends as well... I’ll tell you about them another time. Molly doesn’t like talking about them, and it’s her story to tell” Harry nodded thoughtfully and asked “Jade? Why aren’t you teaching defence against the dark arts if you’re an auror?”

“Because I don’t want that life anymore, and because the teachers for that subject tend to only last a year, and someone needs to keep an eye on you! God knows you’ve got in enough trouble in one year already. Don’t think Albus hasn’t told me already”

 

The following day Jade had come back just after breakfast again. The Weasley children as. Jade had been playing a particularly rule free game of Quidditch they had made up as they went along, before all collapsing out on the grass later as Jade waved her wand and several cups of ice cold lemonade was floating there for them.

Charlie asked Jade “so are you going to terrify the kids on their first day with the jaguar?” She laughed loudly

“god that would be fun, running around after Mrs Norris” Everyone apart from Bill looked confused “what are you talking about?”

“Jade’s an animagus, a huge black jaguar. Honestly, first time I saw it was in the woods in Romania and I thought we were being attacked by something” She smirked “that was the idea. Kept you on your toes. You were pretty terrified”

Ron looked amazed “go on, show us”

She rolled her eyes, moved a few steps away and gracefully transformed into a large, silky black jaguar before turning back again

“Wow!” “That must have been helpful as an auror!”

“Well, yes and no, I mean, I could sneak in places, but then again it’s not like I was a cat, a black jaguar is fairly conspicuous”

 

For all the fun she was having with her nephew and the Weasley family, Jade knew she’d have to face him eventually, though she put it off until the end of the week.

Snape was sat reading a book in his house when he heard a knock at the door. He knew it was a witch or wizard as they were the only people who could get that near to the door without getting confused and wandering off like the muggles did around Hogwarts. With a sigh he opened the door and blinked in surprise at who was standing there.

Jade Greenlake was standing on the small step with a sheepish grin on her face. Her hands were in her pockets, and she was wearing tight black jeans, a black and white Breton stripe t-shirt, black boots and a light brown Mac style coat that was open and her hair in a long side plait over one shoulder.

“Can I come in?”

He blinked again in surprise and moved to the side and she practically bounced into the house as he shut the door behind her.

“Well, this is a surprise. You don’t normally arrive... unannounced” Jade shrugged

“I didn’t know if you’d want to see me again Severus” He half rolled his eyes “I can see in your eyes you’ve got something to tell me, so shall we just get along with it?”

“I’ve left the ministry”

“You’re not an auror anymore? But that’s all you ever wanted to do” “Well I’m still registered, I’ve just stepped down, I’m taking a job at the school”

Severus simply blinked, not bothering to hide his surprise and confusion “well Quirrel’s left -obviously- so the position for defence against the dark arts is open but you know as well as I do it’s a one year post, so I’ll assume you’re taking over from Sprout? You always did excel at herbology”

“Correct. I wanted to be there for Harry, and the defence against the dark arts position is cursed I’m sure of it. No ones lasted more than one year for, well ages. Sprout is going to stay around for that research position for St Mungo’s and to stay head of house, and I’ll teach. I thought I should tell you in person... considering”

Snape looked at her intently with an unreadable expression “considering what Jade? Considering that the last time we saw each other I woke up and you’d left me alone in the bed and gone to fucking Albania for three weeks that turned into nearly half a year?”

She swallowed, unsure what to say and the grin slipped off her face “I was called. You were asleep, and you made it more than clear that I meant nothing to you. I just wanted to tell you as a fucking courtesy. It’ll be in the Prophet in the morning, so I’m sure you can read about to tomorrow and I don’t know, rip up the pictures of my face or whatever petty thing you want to do”

“I’m not being petty. And I never, ever said you meant nothing to me, you know it was never like that for me. Now get out of my house”

Jade looked hurt, opening her mouth to speak and closing it again, obviously about to say something when Snape glared at her

“I said get out” Jade looked shocked before muttering “I’m sorry” and apperating out of the room, leaving Severus in an awkward silence.

After clenching his jaw so hard it hurt a few times, he took the only other route to let out his anger and threw a plate at a wall, watching it smash and felt some vague, small amount of relief at that. What had pissed him off wasn't the notion that Jade would be teaching with him, frankly if she’d told him that a year previously he’d have been thrilled. The issue was the last time they had seen each other.

Severus had woken up alone and hungover, the sheets beside him still warm and a note that simply said ‘Kingsley has sent me away. Can’t say where but it’s cold and there are lots of leads on some shitty people. See you when I get back, J’. That was it.

She’d had an owl in the early morning and had simply apperated to her apartment and then out to wherever the hell in Europe she had been that had ended with her being sent back to the intensive care wing in London.

It wasn’t like Snape thought they’d have this great romance for the ages, he knew who he was and he certainly knew Jade well enough. She was flighty, hard enough to keep her in one city longer than a few weeks let alone a relationship. He’d wondered a few times if maybe people like Jade just weren’t made for relationships.

She’d disappear for months at a time, come back with a death eater and several new scars and curse related injuries, then she might work out of the Ministry for six months, living quietly, and all was calm. She’d go to The Leaky Cauldron and Gringott’s, she’d have dinner with an old friend and go to Florian Fortiscue’s ice cream parlour after. She’d go for a cup of tea and a sandwich with some of the recruits going through the testing process for various Department of Mysteries positions (most of them wanted to be aurors) and she would give them some pearls of wisdom in her lunch break.

Then, without warning, she would be off again, disappearing to Malaysia or Peru or Corfu after some dangerous witch or wizard or some cursed artefact that had been found. There hadn’t been stability in Jade’s life for years, not since Hogwarts probably. Snape frowned at the thought, as even at school she’d had her secrets, namely one, big secret she had kept from James, Sirius and everyone else.

The secret was Snape. No one had ever found out about them.

Even at 15 Jade had been keeping secrets from everyone.

 

_It was their first potions lesson, and the 11 year old Gryffindor and Slytherin students were all sat looking up at Slughorn with wide eyed interest and a hint of trepidation, though that was mostly from the baffled muggle born students._

_Slughorn clapped his hands together, right, put your hands up if you know someone in this class from outside of Hogwarts, I’m not counting the fact you’re sharing dormitories”_

_J_ _ames, Lily, Severus and Jade put their hands up and Slughorn nodded “right, Evans and Snape I’ll assume friends from home?” They both nodded and he continued “and the Potters, I think I can make the assumption you’re twins”_

_They both nodded as well and Slughorn continued “right, I’d like you two pairs to switch, James and Miss Evans, and Jade and Severus please”_

_They dutifully switched places to either ends of the classroom and their professor beamed down at the students there. “Fantastic. I don’t think sitting with people you know is the best way to make new friends is it. Now, can you all turn to page 64, you’ll be making the potion in pairs-“_

_Fifteen minutes later and half the class were arguing with their partners, plotting to try and blow something up, or completely and utterly confused. Severus and Jade were at the back, and getting on easily with the potion._

_He frowned as she chopped some bats wings “you’ve read the books already?” I_

_t was clear she was very comfortable with the method and she blushed a little “I know, my brother called me a geek, but, well, I just thought it was interesting” “_

_I read it too” Jade beamed at him “well, it’s nice to find someone who likes you for what you are” Severus swallowed, enjoying what a gentle soul she was as she glanced at the roots again and began taking off the outside leaves, just as he was doing._

_“You know my brother James is, well, he’s loud, he likes being the centre of attention, he likes pulling pranks and getting in trouble. I just like to read a book and I want to do well, I don’t know what the silly git has got against that”_

_S_ _everus said nothing, going back to the potions book, and they sat in a comfortable silence._

\---

On his deathbed Horace Slughorn would look back at that interaction between the two quiet little eleven year olds at the back of his classroom all those years ago.

Horace would smile comfortably in the knowledge that putting the two first years next to each other in that first lesson had started a chain of events that had led to the light side winning two Wizarding wars, and ensured that the dark haired wizard and the curly haired witch would go down in history.

 

* * *

A little flashback action for you guys! Apologies for any shody editing or spelling, it's 7 am and I'm about to go to work and can't do any more checking!

Please leave any reviews or kudos x

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We finally get to Hogwarts!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haven't been able to properly check this chapter over so let me know if anything is wildly terrible!

The longer it had been since Dumbledore had come to her Hospital room and asked her to join the teaching staff, the more Jade was feeling as though it was the wrong choice.

She had been a good student, and excelled in Herbology, so the subject matter wasn't the issue, it was the teaching itself.

Everyone who wasn't muggle born would probably already know about the fact she had been in Azkaban for three months, and Jade had never cared much what people thought about her.

The Board of Governors approved each teaching appointment, so Jade knew they weren't worried about her, thought she was baffled that their okaying her position meant that Lucius Malfoy hadn't protested the position, which was confusing enough.

She ignored the thought, focusing on the fact she had accidentally agreed to teaching a load or hormonal, moody teenagers for the next year. It wasn't really something that had been on her mind but Jade suspected Dumbledore was aware of that, waiting until she was a little confused still from the prolonged time in the Hospital.

Albus wanted Harry kept safe, and Jade knew that she had both the skills and the desperate want to keep her nephew safe. She knew that was inherently why Dumbledore had got her to come to Hogwarts, but as she sat in the three broomsticks with her fifth firewhiskey and a group of friends from both school and the ministry, Jade was seriously debating whether she had made the right choice.

 

The following morning Jade woke up in her friend Martha's spare room to the sound of an owl tapping at the window in the kitchen and she rolled out of bed with a hungover groan and pulled her hoodie back on and shuffled down the stairs.

Martha was sat at the kitchen table with a large mug of coffee and clearly as hungover as Jade felt.

The Scottish witch pointed at the window where the barn owl was "Please, make the fucking thing stop, my head is killing me"

Jade let the owl in, gave it a treat from the little bowl at the window and sitting down with the letter as Martha waved her wand and a mug of coffee appeared in front of her friend.

Jade flickered her eyes over the letter and groaned, far too hungover for this.

"What's wrong?"

"It's from Hogwarts, they want me to get there from Monday"

"Is the term dates different from when we were there then? Thought the kids didn't start until the start of next month?"

Jade continued reading before replying "It's to prepare for the start of school, which I guess makes sense"

"Do you know who is the new defence against the dark arts teacher?"

"Nah, doesn't say"

Martha sipped her coffee, looking a bit distant "You know, I always thought Sirius would have been a great D.A.D.A teacher.... before.....................everything happened"

The two women glanced down awkwardly, neither wanting to talk about Sirius Black. Jade had lost her twin brother because of Sirius, and Martha had been a year younger than them at school, and had been dating Sirius whilst they were all in the Order of the Phoenix. She had been as confused about everything that had happened to Sirius as Jade had been.

Despite her own grief at the time, Jade had tried desperately to read Sirius' mind using Occlumency before his trial, but his mind had been too muddled to get anything clearly.

Of course, what she hadn't known at the time was that Sirius' mind was so addled by the loss of Lilly and James, knowing that his godson was going to be raised by the Dursley's, and the fact that Peter had been the one to fuck them all over.

Jade just looked over the letter another time and up to Martha who looked distant still, obviously thinking of Sirius still.

"I'll sober up a bit and tell Harry. God I don't even think I can apparate at the moment"

 

 

Harry was still at the Weasley's House. Jade had discussed it with Molly and Arthur and they had all agreed it was probably for the best. Jade and Harry were still getting to know each other, and whilst her apartment was more than large enough for him to stay, they were still basically strangers to each other.

The Burrow was a hive of activity as always when Jade arrived later that afternoon, finally sobered up.

She was wearing a short black dress and matching strappy sandals, the weather bright and warm.

Jade spoke to Molly briefly in the kitchen and then made her way out to where the younger kids were messing around in the enormous garden.

Harry noticed Jade watching and came over.

"Everything okay?"

"Yes, I got a message from the school, I'll be heading there in the next few days, probably in the morning. They need us as soon as we can get there"

“But school doesn’t start for, like, three weeks”

“I know, we’ve got to sort everything out and there’s an awful lot of meetings to get through as well. I’ve never taught at the school so I’m quite glad we can get some time to sort ourselves out really”

“Do you know who the new defence against the dark arts teacher is this year?”

Jade shook her head “I’m sure I’ll be told soon enough. Can you keep yourself safe for a few weeks, I’ll come and visit you when I can"

 

 

The following day Severus Snape was sat at the other side of Albus Dumbledore's desk in his office, looking incredibly pissed off.

The first few teachers had been arriving over the day, but Jade was the last one, and wasn't coming until the following morning.

Albus looked at the younger man intently “When Jade left last year, you were crushed, but now she is back and you’re spending all your time just glaring at her, pretending you hate her”

“Please, Albus, I am not that petty-”

He cut Severus off “The reason Jade was sent to Albania was to go after Daniel McLeish”

Severus stopped, his rebuke caught on the end of his tongue as he blinked “Sorry, you mean she _caught_ McLeish?”

“Yes. Caught him and was seriously injured by him. There is going to be a closed trial, which is why it’s not in the press at the moment. Now, considering everything, can you understand why she dropped everything and went after him?”

“Well… she didn’t tell me that detail”

The older man raised an eyebrow “Hmm, well, I’ll assume you didn’t even give her the chance before you asked her to leave your house”

Severus wanted to tell the older man to fuck off but thought better of it and ran a hand through his hair.

“Well after what he did, I’ll assume she’s been looking for him for a while”

“Alistair Moody has remained on the case for years, I think it has been too painful for Jade. He sent Jade as she is less conspicuous"

Snape just blinked, not even sure what to say.

 

 

Jade had arrived the following morning, leaving her magically packed boxes in her new room and heading straight down to the greenhouses.

She had walked around the practically empty castle, trying to avoid the other teachers. She skipped lunch, heading up the kitchens and eating there, taking some more food down with her to snack on whilst she made her way through the work she had to do before the children started back.

There was a particularly boring staff meeting the next morning, and Jade was late, leaving Severus sat next to McGonnaghal as everyone else chatted happily.

“Jade is late for the first meeting, can't say I'm surprised. When was the last time you saw each other? I know you were friends in school”

He answered in a bored tone

“Before she left a year ago, some nut job wizard from Leeds had been caught trying to make some pretty lethal potions. She asked me to help identify them, then briefly came to tell me the other day about the position here”

McGonnaghal seemed to accept the line and Snape went backroads his food, not wanting to mention that after he had identified the potions, they had gone back to his house and had several rounds of loud, sweaty sex before he had woken up to an empty bed to find she had gone.

Jade and Severus didn’t even make eye contact, and she barely even looked up from the papers in front of her through the entire meeting.

The second it was over she stood, swiftly exiting the staff room, black robes billowing behind her in her haste. McGonnaghal glanced at Severus who said nothing and left, deliberately going in the other direction than Jade, heading down to the dungeons.

 

 

Two hours later Jade was humming to herself as she trimmed a large leaf off a large purple and white flower that appeared to be dancing along. It was calm down at the greenhouses, other teachers all up at the castle, except for Severus who had come down to try and offer a bit of an olive branch.

Severus watched her for a few seconds and she didn’t look up, loudly saying “I know you’re there Severus, I teach concealment and tracking to the new recruits, you’re not as quiet as you think"

He leant against the doorframe of the greenhouse.

“I get why you left”

“Because I had a job to do”

“Because you were after _McLeish_. Can’t blame you, after what happened with the Prewett twins-“

Jade clenched her jaw tightly, “Don’t talk about them, please. Today has been hard enough”

“I just wanted to say...”

Jade glanced up as Severus trailed off and she huffed loudly

“is it really that hard for you to say sorry? Bloody hell. It’s a five letter word, not exactly difficult. Look, if you’ve got nothing helpful to say then can you just piss off? I’m tired and I just don’t need you glaring at me looking all threatening and sulky”

“I’m not glaring at you” Jade seemed unconvinced and moved on to the vine like plants behind her, clipping them back and binning the extras.

There was a long silence befoe he managed to think of anything else to say.

“Does whats-her-name know? Weasley?”

“Molly Weasley?”

“Yes, does she know you got the guy who killed her brother?”

“No. Well I told Arthur, thought it was best to wait till the kids are out of the house as we don’t know how she’ll take it”

“Well she’ll be happy I assume”

“Yeah, but it’s a lot of emotion, I’ll leave it to Arthur to sort out”

Severus paused before speaking “McLeish… was it Gideon or Fabian?”

Jade put the small gardening shears down on the workbench and removed the gloves too.

“Before he was killed by Mad Eye, Evan Rosier said he’d caused the death of one of them, but they were identical twins and he was apparently pretty gleefully telling Mad Eye he couldn’t be sure which one he had killed and which one McLeish had. I guess after a while... it didn't really matter who killed who... I couldn't save either of them"

Severus looked genuinely shocked "Jade, you were being tortured at the time, there's not much more you could do"

Jade said nothing to that, looking intently at her hands to try and distract herself.

Severus sighed "Look, everyone is in their offices, do you want some more of the potion for your scars?"

"You have some ready?"

"I started to brew it when I knew you were coming. Come on, you look exhausted. It's in my offices, come on"

 

 

Jade had felt the throbbing pain in her shoulder and realised Severus was right, and had given up on her own work and followed him back up to the essentially empty castle and silently down to the dungeons, which were echoingly quiet.

No one was down in the dungeons apart from Severus until the children came back at the start of term, so they were on their own.

Severus' own brewing room and offices were at the end of a long corridor and Jade glanced around seeing multiple potions on the go. At the back of the room there was a closed door that she followed him through.

The brewing room led on to Severus' own rooms, and they were stood in the living room area, closed doors to the side that she assumed were his bedroom and bathroom.

The living room was stone, with several large bookcases along one wall, full to breaking point with heavy books.

In the middle of the room was a large grey rug with two sofas adjacent to a big black coffee table with several open books on it, and there was a blue potions bottle that he handed to her.

Jade had used the potion several times and it was thick, more like a cream than a liquid and it gave instant relief to the crippling pain.

As she was wearing a T-shirt and didn't want it smeared on the material, Jade simply pulled the green top off and threw it over the sofa.

She quickly rubbed the potion on to the twisted, dark red scarring that sat there over her shoulder and down over the collarbone. It almost looked like lightning. Not like Harry's did, this looked like the forks of lightning you saw in a storm, several different forks coming off it,

It was full of dark magic that whilst it had lessened a little and there was less magic, the curse was still taking a toll on her body.

Jade looked at Severus with an uncaring but sly grin "Don't look so surprised at seeing a woman in her bra, you've seen me in less"

Severus took a sharp breath in through his nose, well aware of the effect that her topless body was having on him.

They stared at each other for a few seconds before he made a move, closing the gap between them.

He kissed her, hard. There was a moment of relief in his body as he felt her kissing back, and just as quickly there was hands roaming over each other and Jade felt the back of her legs against the sofa, laying down on it, and he moved on top, deftly running a hand away from her bra and down to deftly undo the button and zip on her jeans.

Jade made a groaning sound and Severus pulled back, looking down at Jade.

Her hair was ruffled and splayed out across the sofa, lips apart and breathing heavier than usual, wearing only the black jeans with the zip open and showing the top of black lace underwear, and she had nothing else I’m apart from the matching bra. His eyes didn’t even really register the scarring at her shoulder, having seen it multiple times over the year. “

Admit it”

Jade looked pained at the sudden loss of contact between them and squirmed a little, pouting “admit what?”

He leant down over her, so close their breath was mingling between them “admit it meant something. Admit we meant something”

She gaped “are you being fucking serious? You’re trying to what, shag me into saying I loved you or something?”

“No. Just that it meant something”

His fingers splayed over her ribcage again, rubbing against the underwriting of her bra and he could see the goosebumps appearing on her skin.

“You’re a lunatic”

“Just. Admit. It” Jade rolled out from underneath him and stood up, sipping her jeans and glaring at him.

“Fuck yourself Sev. Honestly, that’s the most action you’re getting off me tonight” She snatched her tshirt off the floor and pulled it on angrily

“you want me so what? Tell you I’m sorry for leaving you to go and find the man who _murdered_ my friend? Tell you I’m _sorry_ my brother didn’t like you so we had to sneak around at school? We’re not 16 anymore we are in our thirties, _**bloody hel**_ _ **l**_ _ **!**_ You want me to sit around and tell you I hated sneaking around and wanted nothing more than for everyone to know about us? You want me to tell you that when you left me to become a death eater it broke my heart? You want me to tell you that on every Death Eater raid I was terrified I’d be faced with capturing, duelling or killing you? You want me to tell you that I’m far too damaged to be the girl you want? You’re so in love with the idea of who I _was_ back then that you can’t even really see that I’m not that girl anymore”

Severus didn’t even manage to process what she’d said before she grabbed her wand in one hand and just slipped her feet into her converse, heels squishing the backs where she didn’t leave time to put them on properly.

Without another word she left the room. Jade made it up onto the ground floor of the castle and out of the dungeons before stopping to catch her breath and quickly put a finger in the back of her shoes to pull them on properly.

She muttered a charm that put her hair in a long, beat side plait, and smoothed our her clothes, taking a steadying breath. She was around the corner from the entrance hall, and whilst no students were at the castle yet, she didn’t want a teacher finding her like this until she calmed down. After a few straying breaths she walked out into the large entrance hallway and quickly out of the front doors, down the grass and out the gates, through the silvery curtain of the apparition points.

She wasn’t sure why apparition wasn’t allowed on school grounds when no students were there but quickly apparated away from the grounds. Jade’s apartment was large, expensive, and full.

Their parents had died whilst they were still at school, leaving their considerable fortune to both her and James, split evenly.

On James’ death his money had been left to Harry, but Jade had never really been much for financial gain or material things. The Ministry paid well enough at her level, but there was no way any of her colleagues were able to afford an apartment in Diagon Alley.

It was the Wizarding equivalent of a house in Kensington, or Chelsea. Of course, with apparition and the floo networks available to them, plenty of witches and wizards lived mikes away from London and could be at the Ministry in seconds, Jade was one of the few who could walk to work there.

The apartment had three bedrooms which was completely unnecessary, but she had always privately hoped to one day have harry in one of the rooms, and the third to be kept a spare. She wasn’t even sure how the balcony flowers or the ones on her kitchen table were even still alive after all the time she had been away and then realised, Remus.

Lovely, dependable Remus. He was a great friend, and his ‘monthly issue’ had never been an issue to Jade. James had constantly made jokes about how they both got grouchy at the same time of the month. She had never really understood why the boys had been so surprised that she had worked out about him being a werewolf, whilst she didn’t exactly hang around with them as the marauders much, Remus, Sirius and Peter would spend most of their summers at the Potter house.

Jade’s room was next door to James’ so it was pretty unlikely that they would have worked it out and not her. Jade knew her parents had been at least halfway aware, heavily hinting over breakfast once ‘James of course your friends can stay after Christmas. I assume Remus will come a little later, it’s a full moon on the 28th’.

Their twin children who had looked shocked and their dad had simply shrugged and carried on with the newspaper “well, that’s fine he is welcome to come whenever he’s feeling better” Their father had been an inventor but their mother had - before having children- been a healer in the ‘long term maladies’ clinic at St Mungo’s, so she had seen a few werewolves and bites come through.

Their parents uncaring acceptance was enough for Remus to continue coming to their house regularly, and James had been desperate for his sister to date Sirius or Remus but it had never happened, no matter how hard Sirius had tried.

Remus had a charmed key to her apartment and would come and go, staying with her periodically and Jade sighed, letting her hair out of the braid and running her hands through her hair.

She knew she should go back to the school but just couldn’t bring herself to until it was absolutely necessary, and sat on the sofa, closing her eyes and thinking in silence. Dumbledore glanced at Severus, seeing the young man brooding with more anger than usual.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?”

“Not at all”

“She’s left the castle, apparated outside the wards, I’ll assume back to Diagon Alley. Did you know she had an apartment there?”

Severus glared coldly at the older wizard, aware that he probably knew that Severus had spent many an evening and night there. “Is there a reason for your visit? Jade is allowed to come and go as she pleases, as far as I was always aware”

“I’d rather we didn’t start the term on such a rocky basis. You two have been friends since you were 11 years old. You have been through a lot together, you should find her and apologise”

“Why do you assume it was my fault?”

Dumbledore cocked his head to the side a little and smiled in a good natured way “because I know you, and you look like you’re blaming yourself for something” Severus just rolled his eyes and went back to glaring at the paperwork in front of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think! x


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Jade - Mad Eye wants to see you”  
> “Well you can tell Alastor to come and find me himself then, lazy little-“  
> A voice carried over the offices   
> “something to say Greenlake?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a random chapter, but have to go over the Auror department connections before we start Hogwarts.  
> Sorry it took so long, my toddler has decided to never, ever sleep again apparently and it has been a long, long, long few weeks.

Jade woke up blearily in the morning, the summer sun streaming in through the windows and she could feel the fabric of the sofa had left lines where she had slept with her cheek squashed into the arm – rest.  
She grumbled, stretching her limbs out and feeling the muscles and joints click and stretch in a way that was marginally painful but somehow good at the same time.

She sat up, well aware that her hair was probably a mess and rotated her scar covered shoulder until the pain lessened a little, realising that Severus’ potion had helped a lot, though she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of letting him know.

After lugging her tired body off the sofa Jade looked at herself in the mirror as she changed, feeling nothing. In her younger days she might have admired the athletic figure and the toned hint of muscle on her lithe body, but now she barely saw that.

All she saw was the dark circles under her slightly distant eyes, the way the scarring at her shoulder looked worse in the morning light, casting a shadow beneath it.

She saw the fading scar on her right knee from when she had been cursed and thrown through a shop window in Budapest when confronting a former Death Eater, she saw the sadness, the anger and the pain beneath the little smile she gave herself when pulling on some dark blue jeans.

Jade didn’t look at any mirrors in the apartment as she brushed her hair, finished dressing, grabbed her wand and left, not wanting to look too closely at her own reflection any more.

 

It was only a five minute walk from Jade’s apartment to the Ministry, and she decided to bite the bullet and go and see Kingsley Shaklebolt, which she knew she needed to do before the Hogwarts term started.

Obviously they had spoken at length about her leaving the Department of Mysteries, and he had been relatively encouraging, realising that she needed to have Harry in her life more than she needed the Auror department.

It was strange to come in to the Ministry without her Auror robes billowing behind her, and without having any work to do. Most people would think it was nice to have the freedom but Jade had left Hogwarts and begun work there less than a week later, and she had never really known any different.

Rufus Scrimgeour was the head of the Auror office and dealt with the politics that came with running everything through the Ministry itself and the legalities of arrests and taking people to trial. Kingsley Shaklebolt was the Deputy Head of the department, and so whilst Scrimgeour dealt with the politics, Kingsley dealt with the people.

There were older and more seasoned Aurors who had been offered the position, but most of them had laughed in the Minister of Magic’s face at the offer.

Aurors were by and large known as quite hard to pin down, in and out of the office all the time, had to be forced into completing any paperwork, and very few had a head for the level of boring organisation that leading the department meant.

Scrimgeour loved everything in its right place, so enjoyed the position, and Kingsley had been the only one qualified who even vaguely wanted the job, and was senior enough that anyone would listen to him.  
Mad Eye had been asked if he wanted the position, as the highest ranking member of the department.  
Jade had heard his laugh from down the corridor.

 

The Ministry of Magic was a fascinating place, with all sorts of people and creatures coming in and out every day, so Jade didn’t really look at who was in the lift with her when she entered, pressing the button to go down to the Department of Mysteries. As the lift began to move she realised there was only one other person in with her, and as they began to speak, she knew who it was before even turning around.

“They must be really desperate for staff at Hogwarts these days”

Jade rolled her eyes before turning “Morning Lucius, what are you rambling about now?”

“letting all the criminals in now are they? Whatever will you be teaching them?”

Jade looked frankly bored with the conversation and let an amused smirk slide across her face “looks that way. They let you on the school board so I guess you set the trend”

Lucius’ eyes glinted in annoyance “I was never charged”  
Jade leant in closer, eyes dark “Yeah, and that was thanks to me, so maybe you should think before you make your enemies”

There was a flash of something behind his eyes, she couldn’t be sure if it was anger or fear -or maybe both- and he raised himself up in a typically Malfoy show of apparent superiority.

“The only reason I didn’t argue against your hiring was because there was no one else qualified”

Jade let out a harsh laugh at that as the lift doors opened, and she walked out backwards to glare at the silver haired man “Or is it because you owed me one? See you around Malfoy”

 

Jade knew she looked pretty ropey as she made her way through the desks of the Auror department where lots of fresh faced juniors and interns were working noisily through enormous stacks of paperwork.

A few people looked up at her, and most of those that did gave her that sympathetic glance that she knew so well.

It was either ‘poor Jade, lost her twin brother’, or ‘poor Jade, can’t even see her nephew’, and then it had become ‘poor Jade, she was lucky to survive that but she lost her friends’, and on other days -like today- it was all of that, coupled with the fact she looked so exhausted. It wasn’t exactly a secret that most of the senior members of the team had issues sleeping, and the junior saw the dark bags under her eyes and probably saw their future looking back at them.

 

Kingsley’s office door was open and he looked up from his desk with a smile that lessened slightly as he got a good look at her, and then the smile dropped from his eyes and he shut the office door with a wave of his wand

“I thought this teaching job was meant to make life easier for you? You just look like shit and term hasn’t even begun yet”

“Just had a lovely chat with Lucius Malfoy on the way down here, that’s enough to piss anyone off I’d say”

“Ah, yes.. He’s never really been a great friend of mine either. Want to sit down? Everything okay? Arthur said you’ve spent a lot of time with Harry?”

She slid into one of the oak chairs on the other side of his desk, rubbing a hand over her tired face.

“Kings, you can’t even begin to understand how much Harry looks like James. I felt a bit sick when I first saw him”

“Yes I’ve heard. Must be worse what with having been not just siblings but twins. I’m sure it’s a relief to both of you to final meet, and you’ll be seeing him all year. He must have a lot of questions about his dad”

Jade looked at the black converse on her feet rather than at her friend as she asked “When and how do I tell him about Sirius”

“Has he asked?”

“No, but every picture of James from Hogwarts has the Marauders in it. He’s going to ask at some point if they’re dead or not. How do I tel him his godfather betrayed his dad and killed Peter too?”

“Can Remus help with that?”

Jade shook her head emphatically “no. Remus lost everything in one go, I don’t know how he would even cope with seeing Harry. Remus lost James, Lilly, Peter and technically Sirius back to back. It was hard on me but I was always more worried about him. He really couldn’t cope with it all for a while. I was pretty scared he was going to go off the deep end... oh I don’t know Kings, I can’t even think about Sirius, let alone tell Harry”

“You’ll have to one day”

“He slept in my house, my parents treated him like a son after the Black family threw him out. James trusted him so much… If I’d been the secret keeper then-”

Kingsley cut her off before she could unravel too much, emotion creeping in to her voice.

“-You couldn’t be, you were going on Death Eater raids every day. You were too likely to be caught, it would have been the stupidest option to make you secret keeper”

“Well, stupidest option was Sirius Black. He got them both killed”

Kingsley couldn’t argue with that, and there wasn’t much else to say after that.

 

Jade eventually left Kingsley’s office, simply wanting to clear the air with her friend before heading back to Howarts, and also to tie up some of her cases that remained outstanding.  
It was around 11 when she headed back out and towards the desks where the juniors were sat, attempting to head back to her apartment when a blonde man she couldn’t remember the name of called over.

“Jade - Mad Eye wants to see you”

“Well you can tell Alastor to come and find me himself then, lazy little-“

A voice carried over the offices “something to say Greenlake?”  
Jade whipped her head around and saw Alastor there with his shaggy hair, scars, dark shirt with the top button undone and sleeves rolled back to the elbow, black trousers, carved wooden walking stick, and both eyes fixed on her.

Jade half wanted to disapparate away on the spot but knew that if he really wanted to speak to her, he’d find her anyways.

“I’ll be right in”

 

Moody looked at her, all awkward and uncomfortable like she was still that slightly awestruck, overwhelmed girl who was barely out of school.

She was looking pointedly at a picture on the wall in a black wooden frame. Moody and Jade were in the middle, smiling wildly, and beside each of them was one of the Prewett twins. She knew most people couldn’t tell them apart but she always found it easy once she knew them, it was Fabian beside her and Gideon next to Moody. They were all covered in dust and bits of rubble, and were standing in Rufus Scrimgeour’s garden.

Their boss had -under great duress from his wife Sylvia- hosted a surprise birthday party for the twins at his house. Neither Moody nor Jade had been allowed to know as they were all very good at keeping secrets, they were terrible at doing it from each other.

Scrimgeour has said it was ridiculous to have a party in the middle of a war but everyone had worn him down saying it was good for morale, so he had dutifully agreed and there was a huge marquee, all their friends, and an awful lot of alcohol (and more protective charms around the building than anyone had ever experienced). Once it had gotten later and later without any sign of the three of them, Kingsley had sent a patronus message asking them to come to Scrimgeour’s house. They had just finished arresting two death eaters after a particularly long and drawn out fight in a crumbling old barn, and had all thought Kingsley meant there was an attack at the house.

They had dropped the prisoners off, and apparated straight into the garden, wands drawn defensively as everyone shouted ‘surprise’ and ‘happy birthday’.

There had been some confusion until the four of them had really clicked what was going on but then everyone had descended into hysterical laughter at the absurdity of the situation.  
The three men and Jade had used magic to clean themselves up but not before Sylvia Scrimgeour has taken the picture.

It had been a fantastic night, and that was what made the picture so hard to look at.  
It felt like a million years had passed between that moment and the present time.  
Jade hadn’t spent much time in Moody’s office since that time, this great, heavy weight of the secret hanging between them.

Jade had offered to take an unbreakable vow to promise she would never tell anyone, but Alastor had said he believed her, but then from that point on had made every effort not to speak to her.  
It wasn’t even that bad of a secret, but she understood his reasoning for wanting to keep it to himself, and for nearly a decade, their once incredibly close bond had been reduced to ‘cordial aquaintances’ no matter how hard she tried.

Alastor had refused to be permanently teamed up with anyone after Gideon and Fabian had died, and would go with others on missions and raids, but would go where he was asked, whereas they had been the four of them together always and every time.

If Jade and Moody had been working together, he was incredibly loyal and protective, but the second the job was done or she was out of danger, he lapsed back to the usual ways.

One of the times she had been in and out of consciousness during her recent stint in St Mungo’s (a few days before Dumbledore’s offer of the teaching job) she had woken to find a very distressed looking Moody sat beside her bed.

She had only been conscious for a few minutes, and when she woke again the chair was empty.  
Jade didn’t sit, standing at the window to the side with her arms crossed and looking out. It wasn’t the real view of course, they were several floors below ground, but it was enchanted like the ceiling at Hogwarts to show the sunny day outside.

Alastor was sat down behind his paper strewn desk and there was a long silence which Jade was adamant she wouldn’t break first, and was relieved when he finally spoke.

“I heard you saw your nephew?”

Jade didn’t look away from the window but replied “He thinks I’m this amazing person who can swoop in and save him, but he doesn’t know me at all”

“He’s never had family from James’ side, he’s lucky to have you”

“He doesn’t know what I have done, who I am”

“You did things that were required for your job. You never tortured, you never maimed, you were never cruel. You captured or you stopped, that was it. The Azkaban thing was a bit unfortunate but everyone is over that”

Jade had turned towards him during his sentence but said nothing, just stating impassively back at him until Moody sighed, clasping his hands together on the desk

“You’ve been through a lot. You are basically half my age, and yet you have suffered more than most. You want to go and teach teenagers about plants? That’s your business. You can do whatever the fuck you want. You’re Jade Greenlake, you don’t need to explain yourself, answer anyone’s questions or do anything you don’t want to do. There are bad people in Azkaban because of you, god there are kids starting at that school who wouldn’t be alive if you hadn’t helped us protect their parents in the war. You’re still young, go live your life whilst you still can”

There was a silence between them, but not an awkward one, just until Jade managed to choke out a quiet “Thank you” between the lump in her throat and the tears prickling at her eyes.  
Alastor clearly wanted to say something else but nodded gruffly “Now, get outta here, you’ve got a greenhouse to sort or whatever it is”

She managed a slight laugh and glanced at the picture of the two of them and the red headed twins smiling for one more second, a pang in her chest before she muttered “I’ll be in when I can” and left.  
Jade didn’t need one of Moody’s enchanted false eyes to look behind her as she left to know that he was also staring at the picture on his wall with an identical expression to her own.

 

 

Jade had hoped that would be the end of the day at the Ministry but as she left she saw that Scrimgeour’s door was ever so slightly ajar and crossed over to it, knocking gently.  
There was a familiar lilting accented “Come in” that made her smile slightly before she entered.

Rufus Scrimgeour’s office was immaculately neat and everything was in its correct place, down to the very last quill. Jade knew that the room would probably be this tidy even without the help of magic, knowing how Rufus was. There was a wall behind the desk of books on dark wooden shelves, a matching wooden desk, its own Floo fireplace and a few paintings along the long wall to her left.  
It was exactly the same as always, and the department boss was in a three piece pinstripe suit, looking immaculate as always. Rufus didn’t even try not to be surprised to see Jade there when he glanced up, and his quill came to an abrupt halt.

“Ah, I was hoping to speak to you before your first term started, I was going to write you a letter to come in but this is rather less formal”

Standing just inside the doorway in her scuffed converse, jeans and a black hoodie, Jade certainly felt underdressed, even if Rufus was going for a ‘less formal’ conversation. She wasn’t even sure if Rufus Scrimgeour knew what ‘less formal’ meant.

He put his quill down “What do you think I want to say to you?”

“That you think I’m an idiot and I’m giving up everything I’ve ever worked for since before I even left school to go and teach about plants, and you always hated herbology?”

There was a slight upturn on his lips at that and his eyes glittered with amusement “no, actually”

“At which bit? You did like herbology then?”

“Jade, five seconds without a joke please?”

“Fine”

“And for the record I did very well in herbology”

“Of course you did, you were a Ravenclaw weren’t you. Sir, did you really bring me here to chat about this?”

“I wanted to tell you something. I want you to tell no one else I’ve ever said this, and I’ve said this to very, very few people who have passed through this department”  
Jade started to look a bit worried at this and he continued

“Jade Greenlake, you came here at barely 18, you lost your brother, sister in law, access to your nephew, your friend went to Azkaban after he killed another friend, two friends were tortured to insanity. You lost Gideon and Fabian Prewett, you were tortured and you’ve spent three months in Azkaban. Since you’ve told me you were leaving, the only thing I’ve wanted to say, is that I am impossibly proud of you”  
Jade practically stopped in her tracks at that, her brain needing to reboot.

“Sorry, did you just say you were proud of me?”

“Yes”

“But...”

“Is that so hard to believe?”

“No, but, uh, Merlin, am I have some sort of fever dream? Am I actually in St Mungo’s right now and imagining all this?”

“No, you are fine. Now, that was all I wanted to say really. You’ll have to come back in for any large meetings to keep you licence so it’s not like this is goodbye, in fact the first one I need you in for is in three weeks. Try not to be late, I know it seems to be ‘your thing’, but I would quite like you to set an example for the new recruits, there’s one you would quite like, she’s Ted and Andromeda Tonks’ daughter….”

 

 

Jade had found herself in with Rufus for another half an hour. It had clearly practically hurt him to say that he was proud of her, so she’d felt a little obliged to stay for a while, and he was clearly trying to move on from what he had said.

She didn’t bother to go back to the apartment, as there was nothing really there that she needed, so she had gone from the Ministry straight to just outside of the wards of Hogwarts, the nearest point you could apparate to.  
She wanted desperately to go and see Harry, but with all the thoughts of her conversations with Kingsley, Rufus and Alastor Moody in her head, she thought it was better to clear her head rather than go straight over.

Thinking of Harry as she walked up to the gates and then trudged through the grass up the slope towards the school only made Jade think of James, and then Sirius after her chat with Kingsley.

As annoying as he had been constantly trying to get her to go out with him, Sirius had been a very close friend of hers. After his parents had thrown him out he had spent Christmas, New Year, Easter, Summer and any free time with the Potter’s.   
At her parents funeral it had been Sirius who had held her left hand whilst James held her left, all of them holding back the tears. It was Sirius who had come to her, breaking a promise to James not to tell his sister about them trying to become animagi, and had begged for her help or else he thought one of them would have died (most likely Peter). 

Sirius and James hadn’t spoken for three weeks after that, but once Jade had helped sort the issues with their transformations out it had all been forgotten. It was Sirius who had talked her around to accepting the Auror job, it was Sirius who had taught her how to become an animgus herself, and it was Sirius who had sat in her apartment and tended to her wounds after the Battle at the Ministry six months before James and Lilly died. For once in his life he hadn’t tried to make a pass at her, simply healed her as best he could and promised not to tell James how bad it had been.

It was hard to equate that person with the one who had sold James and Lily to Voldermort and gotten them killed.

As she walked across the grass towards the greenhouses, Jade felt her eyes prickling with hot tears.

 

Jade had clearly been crying when she made her way back down to the greenhouse. She had wiped the tears off her cheeks but the red rims of her eyelids gave it away to Severus, who was sat inside the main greenhouse. He was making a note on some parchment from an open potions book in front of him, and there was a steaming mug of coffee on the table as well that was half drunk.  
Jade frowned slightly “don’t you have better things to do than follow me around”

“Not really. I have taught the same subject for years, lesson plans don’t need much changing”

He didn’t miss the half roll of her eyes as she came inside, pretending to look at the large Dittany plant so that she could slightly turn away from his intent gaze.

Severus knew her too well though, and attempted to keep his voice light, eyes flickering from her and back to the parchment in front of him.

“So, hard day at the ministry was it?”

“How did you know I went there?”

“Martha, she called me through the floo system to check you were okay. Said she’d seen you there first thing and you looked it in the best way”

Martha was principally Jade’s friend but was on okay terms with Severus, so she should have known her friend would run to him for information.

Jade just sighed, picking a few of the Dittany leaves and turning back to him, picking up some of the empty jars on the long table. She unscrewed one of the larger ones and started tearing up the leaves and putting them inside.

“I had to see Kingsley and then I got roped into speaking to Moody”  
Snape’s eyebrows rose a little at that “you said he was barely speaking to you”

“He wasn’t. After the twins died we were never the same, and he only got more and more... distant with me since then. I don’t know, it’s weird, he acted like he’ll miss me but he’s done his best to ignore me for the last decade”

Severus just nodded at that, aware that she wasn’t going to delve deeper into the issue between her and Moody. He knew it wasn’t just because she hadn’t been able to save Gideon or Fabian, there was clearly something else. 

Jade, Gideon and Fabian had all been attacked simultaneously, and the two more senior auror’s were attended whilst Bellatrix Lestrange cursed and tortured Jade. She had barely survived herself, and whilst Moody might have been upset at the time, this was too long down the line for him to still be acting that way. Snape had asked her several time over the years but she had always been reluctant to explain what had happened.

Jade looked exhausted and rubbed her hand down her face.

“As if that wasn’t all terrible enough, I was then made to have a little chat with Rufus Scrimgour in the simultaneously best and worst conversation of my life, oh and then your best friend tried to threaten me in a lift”

Severus looked confused “who?”

“Lucius Malfoy”

Snape made a half laugh through his nose “the man is an idiot if he thinks he can win an argument against you”

“Well, quite. But really, Sev, why are you here? Don’t you have potions to make? Need to practice your moody stare for when the kids arrive?”

“I, well, I wanted to say sorry”

Jade cocked her head to one side “Sorry for what?”

“You know for what”

“The other night, I shouldn’t have goaded you into thinking that…. And then…… tried to make you say………………………………..something”

To most people that wasn’t even halfway towards an apology, but Jade blinked in surprise, knowing that for Severus Snape that was particularly heartfelt.

“You know, I’m sorry for leaving the way I did last year… If you had done that to me I would have been pretty upset”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone enjoyed. There will be flashbacks peppered throughout the chapters to tell the back story of Jade and Severus. I had to frame this one like this though as Fabian, Gideon, Kingsley and Moody are going to come up more than once, and I think we needed to sort out who knew who and why!
> 
> Please lave any kudos or comments, much appreciated. I'm pretty sure no one will guess 'the secret'!.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A world class auror is forced to comfort three sobbing teenage girls, and her nephew flies a car to school.  
> Start as you mean to go on

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, but a long chapter to go with it.

Jade wasn’t too sure if Gilderoy Lockhart -the new Defence Against the Dark Arts Teacher – was interested in her for her stories as an Auror, or in a romantic way, but either way she didn’t want to speak to him. After the first time he had done a ridiculously low bow and had kissed her hand, Jade had decided she didn’t really want to spend any more time with him than strictly necessary.

It was a strange few days, with no students but just the teachers setting up around the school and rattling around the quiet building, largely outnumbered by the ghosts flitting around the enormous stone building.

Jade had enjoyed speaking to McGonagall and Flitwick, people who had taught her and were incredibly proud of everything she had achieved.

The problem Jade had was that every part of the school held ghostly memories for her, and she would walk up to the kitchens for a snack and see a memory of Peter and Sirius at 14, coming out with their arms laden with sweets and laughing hysterically, telling her not to tell the Prefects as they scurried back up to the Gryffindor tower.

The Hospital Wing just reminded her of visiting Remus as he recovered every month, pale and shaky in the bed at the end of the room. James and Sirius had also been in there enough times as a result of their stupid pranks that it was practically a second home for them.

Several of the corridors and rooms were bringing up much stronger emotions than Jade had been expecting, and one afternoon she had wandered down to the potions corridor, looking in on the classroom Severus used, which was the same one they had been taught in by Slughorn all those years ago.

She’d waited until she knew that Severus was out of the dungeons, aware that he was talking to Dumbledore at the other end of the castle and several floors up in the Headmaster’s office.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to see him, that wasn’t the issue at all, it was more than Jade wanted to be alone with her thoughts.

The classroom wasn’t really that different to how it had been when Jade and James had been there, and Severus had an electric blue potion simmering at the front of the room by his desk, which had several piles of parchment and books on it.

Jade leant against the doorframe and smiled gently at the memory from her third year Potions class, remembering Slughorn passing out their graded essays as he moved through the room.

_“Potter, you’ve done terribly. Black, not as bad as last time but still shocking, Lupin, much better, Potter, very good, well done”_

_James raised a hand “Uh, Professor, which Potter was which in that little speech?”_

_Slughorn looked at James with a distinctly unamused expression and replied “I’m sure you can work it out James” before handing his fail-graded essay and giving Jade her very good one._

_Jade laughed loudly and James levitated a balled up scrap of parchment at her that she ducked easily, sticking her tongue out across the classroom “try harder next time James”_

_“Piss off”_

_“Potter, detention with me tonight” he glared pointedly at James and clarified “I think you can work out which one of you I was referring to?”_

_James sighed deeply and as Slughorn turned back to the blackboard, he put two fingers up to swear at his sister who simply laughed under her breath and swore back at him as Slughorn turned back to the blackboard._

Jade had gone for a long walk around the castle in a long, slightly winding route back down towards the greenhouses, deliberately trying to avoid passing the Teachers Room, which was where she had a good idea that Lockhart was, and she was far too tired to deal with him fawning over her again.

He’d become a bit obsessed with both asking her about going for a drink, being an Auror, and being a member of the ‘famous Potter family’. Jade had rebuffed the drink and every attempt of his to chat about her life and work. It wasn’t that she had an issue talking about it, in fact she’d had a cup of tea with Minerva and discussed both James and her work at length, but it was more the direction of his questions.

Jade appreciated that Minerva understood that whilst they were twins, they had become further and further away from each other, and by the time he died, they were completely different people, and even their last conversation had predominantly been a blistering argument.

 

They had been in third year when it had become clear that Jade and James Porter were very much different people. They had been in Defence Against The Dark Arts at the end of the term just before Christmas break and everyone was attempting their patronuses. They had been doing it on and off for several months so the students were going from whispy little tendrils to slowly forming into the shapes of animals.  
Of the two of them, James managed to form his first, though only by about ten minutes. His stag was bouncing around the classroom, trying to knock other students over.  
A short while later Jade managed to form hers, and it was a Jaguar.  
_James and Jade looked at each other with identically confused faces and their teacher, Professor Maikin looked equally surprised._  
“Well, I had assumed you two would have similar animals for your patronus.... after Mr Potter formed a stag I had rather assumed yours would be at the very least a horse maybe, a similar shape, but well... clearly I was wrong”  
“Is that not normal?”  
Professor Maikin had simply cocked his head to one side “well, it’s not unheard of. You’re clearly just very different people”

_That evening, after meeting Severus in the library to do their potions homework she had told him under her breath what had happened. The dark haired Slytherin hadn’t looked too surprised._

_“Well, is that a surprise? Just because you’re twins it doesn’t mean you have to be tied together for your whole life. You’re a different person completely to him”_

_“Sev, we literally shared a womb for nine months, I don’t think I want to be that different from my brother”_

_He had put his quill down and looked closely over at her “Jade, you and James are such different people, I think just the fact that Sirius and James put me in the Hospital Wing last week, and the fact you are here with me, helping me with an essay… You’re not the same at all”_

_That had given her pause for thought, and as Severus had gone back to his essay, and Jade had been left deep in thought, quill frozen just above the parchment._

 

 

Jade managed to keep herself largely to herself still for the next two days, the last before school began and the students arrived. She’d got over her initial terror at trying to teach a bunch of miserable teenagers about a subject she had never considered teaching.

She had managed to make it to most of the meals with the other teachers, realising that she was going to be teaching for a year with them, so may as well make some type of gesture to seem a bit less miserable.

She had sat deliberately at as far from Lockhart as possible, staying with other teachers, even making small talk with Trelawney even though she found the woman insufferable.

Charity Burbage was the Muggle Studies teacher and Jade was pretty fascinated, having come from a very long line of pure blood families. Her parents weren’t bothered by blood status, and neither had many of the extended family, it had just been that most of them had met at Hogwarts, so going back generations there was very little muggle in the Potter family.

A fascination with muggles was one of the first things that had made Arthur and Jade friends, though she knew a lot more about their world than he did, but that didn’t stop her wide eyed asking Charity over food about how on earth a microwave and a hoover worked, though she still wasn’t too sure but Charity was more than happy to have an interested audience.

At the end of the week Jade had realised that she was lonely and had wondered up to McGonagall’s classroom, and the Transfiguration teacher was writing something at her desk, looking up with a smile at the knock on her door.

“Afternoon Jade, I was looking for an excuse to have a break and a cup of tea, want to join me?”

She nodded and sat down on the other side of her desk as the older woman waved her wand, a large, steaming pot of tea and two teacups, a small jug of milk and a pot of sugar appearing as well.

Jade glanced down at her jeans and brushed the potting soil off it and checked there was none on her palms.

“You know James always used to say I cared too much what I looked like, he’d think it was hilarious if he could see me here, preparing to teach in a Greenhouse and covered in dirt”

Minerva smiled and pushed a cup of tea with a dash of milk and a single sugar – just how Jade always had it- over to her former student.

“Yes, well, your time here was a very long time ago, you aren’t the same person you were at 11 when you came here are you? I certainly hope I’m not”

“No, I suppose I am quite different now”

Minerva glanced over the top of her tea cup “Have you been here since your final year?”

“No”

Their eyes met and the older witch just nodded “I didn’t think so. That night, the Halloween night when James and Lilly died, later that night no one could find you so they all thought you had come here as you were completely off the grid… When you came back to the Ministry I told anyone who asked that you had been here, so I thought it was best to leave you with whatever privacy you needed for that time”

Jade looked deeply into her tea, suddenly transported back to that horrible night all those years before….

 

_It was Halloween night and the ministry was swirling with activity as always on that night. The wizarding world was quite odd at the best of times, but the night of Halloween was always a bit mental, especially at the Ministry of Magic, during the middle of a war against Voldermort and the Death Eaters._

_Half of the staff seemed to have gotten into the mood, decorating and putting sweets out, obviously trying their best to not let the war impact their lives, which was an admirable attempt at least. It was dampened a little by the fact that the other half of the Ministry staff were stoically going on as normal._

_Everyone in the Department of Mysteries – not just the aurors, every single department within that- was on call or in the building, on high alert. It was known that the Potter’s were imminently under attack, and that they had a secret keeper to keep their location secret._

_People were able to visit them, but only when ‘authorised’ by Lilly or James, and even so, whenever Jade had visited them, she was never able to pinpoint or quite remember the location of the house at the time or after leaving._

_She had been adamant that she should be the secret keeper but she was far too high profile as well known Auror, and whilst there was no way she would give in to torture, it wasn’t impossible that she would be overpowered or even put under the Imperius Curse, and she was unable to take a step back from work, there was just too much at stake, too many lives._

_To the best of her knowledge, Sirius Black was the secret keeper, and because of that Jade had complete faith that James, Lily and baby Harry were safe, as there was no way he would give up their location._

_Well, Jade had been sure, but would spend the intervening years after her brothers death wondering if the signs had been there about Sirius the whole time._

_Gideon and Fabian were elsewhere in the building with Scrimgeour, probably arguing with the Minister a few floors up. Other than that, the department was absolutely full of staff, probably too many to be honest, as lots of them had nothing to do, but Moody, Kingsley and Scrimgeour had felt uneasy and brought every one in they could._

_Jade was wearing black jeans and a loose black t-shirt, denim shirt unbuttoned, and the sleeves rolled back to her elbows. Her hair was only a little longer than shoulder length, though still very curly and a parting on the left side of head._

_Jade had yet to be tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange, that would happen within a few months, and Frank and Alice would be in St Mungo’s, Peter would be dead, Sirius would be heading for Azkaban once caught, and Gideon and Fabian would be killed._

_That was all, unfortunately, still to come. But for tonight, for that cold, clear Halloween night, Jade was leaning against a desk, glancing with bored indifference over a copy of the Daily Prophet._

_There was a loud discussion going on near her with about seventeen people, some in jeans, some in suits, some in auror robes, all arguing about the best way to go after the Carrow’s when Jade felt a wave of dizziness come over her._

_She clutched the edge of the desk and knew something was very, very wrong. Only a few times in their lives had Jade and James ever felt some sort of ‘twin connection’, though James was more sure about it than Jade ever had been. She had felt a bit ill once or twice after James had gotten into some quite serious problems after pranks had backfired and he’d ended up in the Hospital wing, but the only time she had ever really believed it was after they had been trying to become animagi, and had become seriously unwell and felt physically sick after James had nearly killed himself by trying to hurry the process along too fast._

_Jade hadn’t been with them at the time, but had just instinctively known._

_This time was the same, she just knew, but this was much worse. This wasn’t a feeling of nausea, the dizziness quickly became a shooting, searing, blinding pain in her head and stomach._

_Jade let out a pained groan and clutched her stomach, a hand flying out to brace herself on the edge of the desk but it slipped and she fell to her knees, paper going everywhere._ _  
Moody whipped his head around, distracted by the noise from her over the discussion of the Carrow’s, and moved as quickly as he could to her “what happened?”_

_She let out another strangled groan of pain and doubled over before she let out a harrowing scream._

_The entire department was looking at her as she looked up at Alastor, tears in her eyes and breathing heavily “it’s James, something happened- please-“_

_She had barely finished the sentence before over two thirds of the people around them disapparated, heading to help, a whirlwind of robes and ‘pops’ that she barely heard._

_Jade was left there, on her knees with a stabbing pain ripping through her chest and stomach. Kingsley had remained with his friend and Jade looked at him, sweat beading on her face now._

_“They’re dead Kings, he got them”_

_“You don’t know that for sure”_

_“They had a secret keeper charm on the house. If they were alive, no one would have known where to disapparate to”_

_Kingsley opened his mouth but then said nothing, realising that unfortunately, Jade was right._  
  
  
Jade had become practically catatonic, staring at the wall with a blank look in her eyes in Scrimgeour’s office, and everyone had left her on her own after became clear she wanted no one there. 

_The Ministry officials had slowly been coming back, though they had given Jade a lot of space, and whilst the rest of their world might have been celebrating the death of Voldermort, the members of the Department of Mysteries had seen the bodies of two young people in their early 20’s who had died defending their infant son, and they knew what their deaths would do to their friend and colleague. Many of them had been thrown by seeing James Potter’s lifeless body, momentarily thinking they had seen Jade there._

_She only turned around when she heard footsteps approaching that she didn’t recognise and turned ever so slightly._

_Albus looked weary, looking down at the shaking, pale and ready eyed young woman as she stared at him, her voice so quiet he could barely make it out initially._

_“You promised me. You promised they were safe”_

_“Your brother put his faith in the wrong person”_

_Jade blinked and that led to a series of tears being moved and rolled down her cheeks._

_“And Harry?”_

_“He’s safe. He has a scar on his forehead but no apparent lasting damage, you can see him tomorrow”_

_She was still staring “Okay”_

_“You should go home”_

_Jade shook her head a little, managing to wipe a tear off her left cheek “no, I live in Diagon Alley, everyone is out celebrating the war is over... I can’t listen to that”_

_Of course there were plenty of spells she could use to cover the sound but she couldn’t even bring herself to think about that right now._

_Jade felt the way her heart felt as though it was being gripped by a freezing cold hand and glanced at the clock on the wall, seeing it was 2 in the morning, and without another word, she apparated out of the building._  
  


_Severus had been awake, having heard the news through the burning then then freezing cold feeling through his Dark Mark, which had then settled to just a dull warm, prickly heat, like a mild sunburn. Within the hour there was a middle of the night issue of the Daily Prophet (which had never happened before) proclaiming that the Dark Lord was dead._

_It had also come with the news that James and Lily Potter had been killed, but that their son had survived. Severus had felt a pang of sadness at the death of his childhood friend, but they hadn’t spoken much in years, and his real concern was that Jade had lost her twin brother._

_They had lost contact for a while, not that that was too surprising, he was a Death Eater and she was an Auror. Severus had given Jade information though about the planned Attack on the Ministry, and thousands of lives had been saved._

_Since then they had been in contact, but much like their school years, this hadn’t exactly been private. Whilst some friends had known about them at school, no one knew that they had been in contact for over 18 months, though they had only spoken, nothing more than that._

_Severus hadn’t been surprised by the knock on his front door at just after 2am._

_He also hadn’t been surprised at seeing the wrecked figure of Jade Greenlake on his doorstep, looking utterly defeated, voice quiet_

_“There are fireworks all over the wizarding world, everyone is celebrating... but my twin brother is dead”_

_He’d let her in without a word._

_Nothing happened, they lay beside each other silently in the bed and Severus wound his arms around her, holding her tightly and letting her drift off, even after his arm had long lost all feeling in it._ _  
Their bodies were wound tightly together, with Jade’s long dark hair lightly in his face but he didn’t want to move and disrupt her, feeling the gentle rise and fall on her side and knowing that she was asleep._

_They hadn’t said much, and she had just laid in the bed, shaking and crying until she couldn’t manage it anymore and had finally drifted off._

_For his part Severus hadn’t known what to say and had just rubbed his hand gently on her side, comforting and listening at the things she had said. Much of it had been scattered memories of James throughout their life together, random flashbulbs of things they had done together. Some had made her laugh through the tears whilst others had only made them worse. Severus had at times said a few words when it was a memory he knew about but had known that she just wanted to let it all out, this wasn’t a conversation._ __  
  
  
In the morning they were In the same position, and Jade turned, eyes bloodshot and red rimmed, making sure to turn but keep the same position so that his hand was still on her side.  
Her voice was slightly cracked from all the crying the night before.

_“Thank you. Thank you for everything”_

_“I didn’t really do anything-“_

_“You let me sleep. There wasn’t anywhere else or with anyone else in the world that I would be able to fall asleep last night”_

_Severus clenched his jaw and swallowed, the Adam’s apple moving quickly._

_“Jade...”_

_“When I heard... you were the first place I went... I apparated five times so no one knows I’m here, and you’ve got immunity so no one is coming after you”_

_He moved the hand from her side to stroke it through her curly hair “what, do you think it’s all okay and we can run away together?”_ _  
He’s meant it as a joke but he didn’t miss the way Jade’s eyes softened and looked at him intently_

_“we could go to America, you could teach at Ilvermorney, we could... we could be happy? Somewhere new?”_

_Severus’ hand stopped in her hair and he looked genuinely thrown by the almost pleading tone in her voice “Jade, you’ve just lost your brother, this isn’t the time to make plans, especially not with me”_

_“Why ‘especially not’ with you?”_

_“Because you still have to find Sirius Black. You won’t be able to rest until someone brings him in, and I’m not you ‘forever’ person am I? I’m just the ‘for now’ person”_

_Jade pushed herself up so that she was supporting herself on one hand against the mattress and looked down at him, a loom of genuine surprise on her face “is that what you think?”_

_“For Merlin’s sake Jade, look at you and then look at me. You were only ever with me to spite your brother and his friends”_

_That drew a look if even more surprise and Jade looked around the room in sort of defeated annoyance_

_“I don’t get you. We’ve been together since we were about fifteen, and I hung out with you since we were eleven years old. If I did that to ‘spite’ my brother and his friends, then why did I wait until six weeks ago to even tell James? None of the other Marauders know. Don’t you think I’d have done it a bit sooner than that? You don’t think I’d have used that in an argument when we were teenagers? Merlin, I mean, do you really think there’s anything else I wanted...?”_

_Jade had tapered off before adding ‘all I ever wanted was you’ but Snape knew exactly where she had been heading and just simply blinked, looking baffled as she shook her hair to try and untangle some hair and slipped out of the bed, still fully dressed._

_“I’m going to make some coffee and breakfast, I’ll be downstairs”_

_He simply nodded, unable to string a sentence together and tangled in the bedsheet._ __  
  
  
Severus came down about fifteen minutes later. Jade was sat at the light wooden kitchen table with the clothes from the night before that she had slept in, her hair still a light mess, and the table had toast, marmalade, cereal and coffee on it. She ate in silence before leaving, heading back grimly towards the Ministry.  
  
  


  
On the Monday, the students arrived. The whole places was chaos and even the ghosts were excitable. Jade was finding herself genuinely looking forward to meeting her students and seeing Harry and the Weasley children again.

She had been excited to head down to the feast when she had been waylaid by three tearful Hufflepuff students in their third year who had had an argument.

“P-p-p-professor Greenlake?”

The girl was on the verge of crying and Jade had stopped in the hallway, wondering ho she knew her name but remembered her face, name and new position had been all over the Prophet for weeks.

“Er, yeah?”

Jade wasn’t exactly used to speaking to sobbing 13-year-old girls any more.

“S-S-S-Sophie said she was going to hex me if I went out with Michael”

Jade had just blinked “Sorry, I was heading to catch the feast and I have no clue what you’re talking about. You realise Professor Sprout is your head of house still, I’m not, I’m just teaching Herbology”

“But, Professor Sprout igsn’t here today though!’

And that was how Jade Greenlake, highly decorated Auror, spent an hour with three sobbing teenage girls in an empty classroom rather than at the feast.

 

Afterwards she’d realised she was too late to really come in and walk all the way down to the Teachers table and decided to go to the kitchens for a quick snack and then headed back down to her rooms.

At the doorway in the empty corridor -everyone was at the feast- was Severus, dressed in his black dress robes. He gave her a slight smile “I managed to slip out early, gathered you were waylaid. Lockhart is being…Lockhart, you didn’t miss much”  
  
She laughed and they went in, and Severus glanced around, seeing that she had barely unpacked anything and closed the door behind him, standing in the large living room area, pretty much just full of unopened boxes.  
  
“Merlin, you know you can use magic to unpack stuff”

Jade rolled her eyes “I’ve always been messy, even when we were here ourselves”

“True. Other schools make you tidy up, maybe if you’d gone to Ilvermorney you’d be a bit neater”

“I nearly did go though didn’t I”

Severus looked baffled and she continued “I spoke to my parents, before they died, about changing schools”

Severus looked baffled “sorry, what?”

“It was after what happened at the Whomping Willow, when Sirius tricked you and Moony nearly killed you... I asked to change to Ilvermorney. What with the floo network I could have come home at breaks just as easily as James did on the train so they told me it was my decision”

“I-but- you wanted to leave Hogwarts, why?”

“I thought if I wasn’t there then they would have left you alone, it was because they knew you were interested in me that they were so horrible to you, so I just thought” jade shrugged, not sure what else to say “I thought it might have helped if I’d left”

Severus just looked baffled “you were going to change schools... for me?”  
She blushed a little, eyes flickering away from his wide eyed, intent gaze “I didn’t want to be on my own, and I thought that if I left and you were on your own with them that, well, it might just get worse”

Severus just stared at her openly in surprise, not even sure if he would have been able to hide the shock even if he had tried.

“I don’t know what to say”

Jade just shrugged “I’m not expecting you to say anything, I just wanted you to know. That night, after James and Lilly died and I came to your house – when you joked about running away to America, that’s why I said yes. I wasn’t just reacting to grief, it was something I had considered for a long time”

Jade put her hands in her pockets and pulled a half smile “Well, that was a long time ago wasn’t it. We’re different people now”

“Not really. Just older and maybe ever so slightly wiser and a lot more world weary”

There was a long silence as they stood in the silent room amongst the cardboard boxes, looking at each other.

Jade swallowed and they slowly bridged the gap, both moving towards each other.

It was a gentle kiss and neither were really too sure who deepened it first but fairly soon she felt the sweep of his tongue and made a slight groaning sound as she ran her hands up his arms and linked her hands around the back of his neck, feeling that their bodies were now flush against each other.

It wasn’t frantic and passionate but it was almost an apologetic kiss, they had both royally fucked up, Jade by leaving without warning the year before, and Snape by the little interaction earlier in the week.  
  
Jade felt a cold hand snake it’s way under her t-shirt and steal a grope through her white bra. Her slight groan was lost in their kiss and she was deftly undoing the black belt Severus had on and the top button of his trousers, then the zip was going down wen suddenly a white ghostly cat appeared in the room.

The sound of their old Transfiguration teachers voice was enough for the heat to completely leave them both, and then McGonnaghal’s patronus message spoke loudly through the room.

“Potter and Weasley missed the train and came in a flying car. Please come to my office immediately”

They were both forever glad that patronus messages went to the intended person, and they didn’t get told what that person was up to at the time, nor could they see the two intended people touching each other up.

Severus and Jade looked at each other and he let out a light laugh “great. Cockblocked by a 12 year old”  
Jade just smirked at that and rested her forehead against his shoulder, hands still at his open zip “we should probably, Uh, we should probably go to see McGonnaghal”

He nodded in agreement and - clearly annoyed- did his trousers back up.

Jade ran a hand through her hair to try and smooth it down “sorry, did she say they came in the flying car? Oh for gods sake”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave love and comments x


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was meant to be a short one but it just got longer and longer!

Harry and Ron were sat in Severus Snape’s office, absolutely terrified.

McGonnaghal had gone to find Dumbledore and left them alone with the fuming potions teacher. Jade had hung back, sorting her clothes out before heading down, wanting to leave a gap between her and Severus, so no one had known they had been together.

Once had had got the full story about them being seen by Muggles, he had pretty much exploded, seething with anger.

“You were _seen_ by no less than seven muggles, do you have ** _any idea_** how serious this is. You have risked the exposure of our world, not to mention the damage you have inflicted on a whomping willow that as been on these grounds since before you were born”

“Professor Snape, I think it did more damage to us”

Ron knew immediately that he had probably said the wrong thing and Harry let out a strangled attempt at smothering a laugh and Snape’s eyes flickered coldly from the redhead to Potter, voice ice cold.

“Think this is funny Potter? We’ve already had one member of your family spend time in Azkaban, let us not make it two”

At that there was a noise at the open door and Snape and the two students whipped their heads around to see Jade there, a smile on her face that didn’t extend to her eyes, which held a distinctly unamused look.

“If the Ministry wanted to punish them, they would be here already, don’t you think Severus”

It wasn’t really a question and the two stared each other out across the room, something unspoken between then before he pointed to the now both terrified and perplexed students.

It was a tension made even more awkward considering about fifteen minutes before he’d had his hand up her top and hers were practically inside his trousers. That probably wasn’t something they wanted Harry and Ron to know though.

“They risked revealing everything to the Muggles, they were _seen_. They are lucky that the Ministry isn’t here already”

Jade didn’t find herself disagreeing and just looked at her nephew.

Seeing Harry sat there looking sheepish and in trouble, she couldn’t help but think ‘like father like son’ and tried to hide a grin.

“Harry, Ron, why didn’t you come on the train?”

“The barrier didn’t work, we didn’t know what else to do so we took Arth-”

Jade cut him off before he could finish incriminating Arthur Weasley any further though Snape had heard it and filled the gaps in himself, giving her an icy look that she tried to ignore.

“Harry, I believe you, but the barrier at the station doesn’t just _close_ without reason. Look, you’re here now, and it’s late, you should get up to your Dormitory”

At that, Dumbledore and McGonnaghal arrived, and Jade said nothing, giving Harry and Ron a reassuring smile that made them both feel a little less stressed as the other three teachers spoke.

Once McGonnaghal had said they would have detention and they would have letters sent to their parents, Jade had offered to walk them to the Dormitory but McGonnaghal had said she wanted to go and speak to her Prefects so she would take them and Jade should get some rest as lessons began in the morning.

She’d said goodnight to Harry and Ron as they left with McGonnaghal and Dumbledore had excused himself.

Snape and Jade were left in his office, and there was an awkward crackle of tension between each of them.

Severus’ voice was quiet “I didn’t mean to bring up Azkaban”

“Honestly it’s fine, everyone knows about it. I should go to see the Hufflepuff students. I’m not even their bloody head of house but Sprout isn’t here and I’ve already had to deal with some of them sobbing over a boy”

He just nodded, trying to look like he was reading the newspaper on the desk, fists clenched tightly, as he deliberately didn’t look directly at her.

“Fine. I’ll see you tomorrow”

Jade suspected that he was rather more annoyed by the interruption of what would have definitely ended with sex, than the fact Harry and Ron had crashed the flying car.

 

 

After she checked in with the Hufflepuff students, Jade had found herself at a bit of a crossroads, standing in the empty corridor. Turning left would head down to the dungeons and right was back towards her own rooms.

There was a small part of Jade that considered heading down to Severus’ rooms and continue where they had left off (her brain kindly reminding her how long it had been since she’d had good sex) but she found herself back at her own rooms instead.  
  
  


In the morning, Jade dressed herself in dark grey jeans, a long sleeved black t-shirt, boots, and pulled on her black teaching robes open over her clothes, desperately trying to sort her hair into something halfway resembling tidy.

She had eaten several pieces of toast and had hurried down to the Greenhouses, nearly late for her first ever teaching lesson.

Jade had always been good at herbology, but even standing in front of her very first class, she was truly baffled to be there teaching it.

She was quite glad that the first class was the Gryffindor Sixth years, and recognised Percy Weasley, who gave her a quick smile as she began the class, full of excited students.

Jade was quite surprised at having so many sixth years who had taken it in their sixth year but then she assumed that a lot of them were probably fascinated with the fact that she was both a Potter and an Auror.

It was half an hour in to the class that one of the students blurted out loudly

“Professor, can you tell us what Azkaban was like?”

There was a collective intake of breath amongst the class as everyone looked on edge but Jade just laughed it off with a raised eyebrow “if you really want to know I’m happy to talk to you about it in a Saturday detention?”

The student looked beyond relieved and Jade had just carried on “Right, remove the yellowish leaf on the right hand side, and we’ll examine what happens when it is replanted”

 

It was near the end of the class, and everyone was having a great time, the yellow leaf each pair had replanted having immediately grown and flourished into a blue flower that made a buzzing noise that was almost like it was singing.

Jade glanced at the class name list and then back to the laughing and chatting students.

“Oliver Wood- you’re the Quidditch captain right?”

The Scottish boy nodded with aa particularly proud look on his face and Jade continued “Now, I shouldn’t show any House bias but I hope you’re starting training soon”

“You were a Gryffindor weren’t you professor?”

“Yes, same as my brother and Dad.  Now, can you all get out your quills, I’ll give you the homework now”

 

 

Jade had hit her stride by the third lesson, which was the last one before lunch.

The second class had been seventh year Slytherin’s, and they had been quite good, obviously responding well to the fact she hadn’t had any negative bias towards them like some teachers seemed to because of their House, and she had given them House Points when it had been earned.

The thing that had definitely helped was that Jade hadn’t caught or imprisoned any of their parents, though she was sure at least one of her students in the school probably would have a grudge against her because of that.

 

Jade had been very relieved by the third class as it was the second years Gryffindor’s and she was quite glad that she had such small classes, which allowed for her to get to know the students, and also to be able to have rather lively discussions, as some of the houses from some year groups were exceptionally small.

In Jade’s year just the Gryffindor boys alone had been three dormitory rooms full, the Marauders always together in one of them. None of the second year houses managed to fill more than one set of boys and one set of girls rooms.

That was the unfortunate thing about their year group, well when Jade thought about it, it was probably every year group at the school – they had been born during a war. A lot less people _planned_ children whilst they were fearing for their lives.

 

 

At the end of the class Jade asked loudly “Harry, Ron, can you stay back a second”

Everyone filtered out and Hermione looked unsure so Jade motioned for her to come over

“Granger, you can stay too it’s nothing that exciting”  
  
Once everyone left it was just Jade and the three students in the greenhouse and she meant on the workbench “look, Ron, I’m sorry about your mum sending the howler but it’s better than the Ministry getting involved”

“Is my dad in trouble?”

“No, what he did, the actual making of the car, that perfectly legal. The part where you two flew it over a load of Muggles was the bit you’re not allowed to do. Luckily I’ve still got sway and your dad is very well liked. Now, tell me what happened with the barrier”

Harry and Ron retold her the story of the platform barrier not letting them in and Jade looked deep in thought throughout, not asking any questions or saying anything.  
Only once they had finished did she speak “and what was the name of the house elf you said appeared in your Aunt and Uncle’s house over the summer?”

“Dobby I think? Can you find anything out?”

Jade shook her head and Hermione spoke first “there’s no official list of who house elves belong to, it’s mostly pure blood families but that doesn’t narrow it down”

Harry looked exasperated “so probably a Slytherin family then?”

“Because they’re pure blood? Harry I should probably remind you that Ron’s family are pure blood, and so was your fathers family. I’ve got a friend who was in Slytherin and his dad was a muggle. Don’t fall for the old stereotypes. Anyway, I’ll see what I can find out, you three need to run along to lunch, I’ll walk you back up to the castle” she waved her wand and the textbooks littering the workbenches immediately flew into a nice neat pile at the front “I don’t know about you but I’m starving”  
  


 

After lunch Jade’s classes had continued to go well, but she was relieved when it was all over and she sat next to McGonnaghal and Charity Burbage at dinner, asking the Muggle Studies teacher to explain how a TV remote worked, still baffled but her friend was more than happy to have a captive audience, and Jade suddenly realised why her and Arthur got on so well.

 

 

After dinner none of the teachers had given a detention yet as it was only the first day, and so everyone made their way down to the teachers lounge, sitting around and chatting easily.

Severus was reading the newspaper on one of the sofas, pretending he wasn’t listening to Gilderoy Lockhart trying to charm some of the female teachers, who were not having any of it.

He had sat down with Jade, Charity, Flitwick, Poppy Pomfrey, Hooch and Irma Pince from the library, most of whom were enjoying a glass of wine.

“Well hello everyone, I hope everyone had a positive first day, mine in fact was very successful, lots of learning, lots of quizzes”

Jade let out quite an audible groan of annoyance that Lockhart either didn’t hear or ignored.

Flitwick and the women made polite conversation before managing to slip away one by one, and Jade filled her wine glass again before talking to Minerva about literally anything else by the windows.

 

She made her excuses earlier than she had wanted to, heading back to her room and taking the initiative finally -after having been there for several weeks- to actually finally get around to unpacking the room.

Her bedroom had a large four poster bed but she dug through the boxes, finding a dark red throw that her mother had made for her as a child, spreading it over the top of the sheets. Jade went back to the boxes, aware that she could use magic but frankly after so many years going here and there all over the world after wizards, and spending hours upon hours in the Ministry, she hadn’t really looked through her belongings for a long time.

Jade put up several pictures she had, her and James grinning, arms around each other and waving, England had won the Quidditch World Cup and they’d been, celebrating after watching it with their parents.

There was one of Jade as a bridesmaid at Frank and Alice’s wedding, standing with the happy couple and Amelia Bones who had also been a bridesmaid. She had some of her with other friends, her and Martha at a very boozy New Year party, and one that made her smile gently at the memory. Jade couldn’t remember who had taken the picture, but it was of her and Fabian Prewett sat on a sofa, their heads resting against each other and fast asleep, still dressed in their black Auror robes with the red insignia on the chest, clearly having worked through the night, forever snoring together in the image.

She put the framed images on the wall or window frames, slowly making the place look homely.

Eventually Jade found one at the bottom of the first box, in a little black frame that she hadn’t seen for a long time, having been living in a drawer for a long time. They were barely fourteen, her and Severus, and they had been the two winners of the duelling tournament at Hogwarts, and as none of the Marauders had been involved, they had been able to be relaxed around each other.

Jade had a huge grin on her face, holding the women’s trophy, and Severus had a slight smile as he held his own, their bodies close together, and it was clear they were very close.

Jade remembered how the days spent practicing against each other had really brought them much closer together, and it had been the practicing for that which had led to their first kiss the night before.

It was a nice, sweet memory from before things had become messy and they’d been reduced to sneaking around.

Jade looked at it for a few seconds before muttering a charm to create a copy of the moving image, slipping one in to her bedside table drawer and heading down to Severus’ rooms.

It wasn’t that late so she knew he would be awake, but it was late enough that every student was under curfew in their dormitory, including the prefects, so there was no chance of her running in to a nosy student.

 

Taking the picture down to him was mostly with a view to trying to clear the air between them – yet again. Things had been left a little up in the air and as she knocked on his door, there was a fleeting worry that it was going to be slammed back in her face when he realised who it was. Snape however just looked at her with mild surprise and moved to the side, letting her in to his rooms, closing the door and looking a little dubious.

“Sev, I was looking through some pictures and found this, I thought you might like a copy of it. It’s always been a lovely memory for me”

He took the image and there was a hint of a smile “I haven’t seen this for years”

Severus looked at it for a few seconds longer and he put it on the coffee table as Jade looked at the names of the books piled high on his bookcase shelves.

Severus watched her closely “Well, Lockhart has clearly charmed nearly every female in this castle”

Jade raised an eyebrow “Well, the students, I don’t think he’s had much effect on McGonnaghal do you?”

“I was talking about you”

Jade chuckled at that, walking back over the room “you think I’m getting the hots for that jumped up little show off? Merlin, you really think he’s my type?”

“I didn’t even know you had a _type_ ”

“Ah well, I’d say my type is tall, dark and a bit sulky”

Jade leant forward, pulling at the front of Severus’ dark robes to pull him down to her for a quick, heavy kiss before breaking it off, smoothing down the front of the black robes, and it was clear that he desperately hadn’t wanted to break the kiss.

“Jade, I-”

Her eyes had flickered to the clock on the wall and she instantly looked annoyed.

“Fuck, I told Minerva I would come see her and I’m already 10 minutes late. It’s about Ron and Harry’s punishment so I have to…” She glanced down his body and couldn’t really miss the slight tightening of the fabric of his trousers and gave him an apologetic smile.

“Enjoy your long, _cold_ shower”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the ongoing love, and any comments would be loved x


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There was a hint of a smirk on his lips as he sipped the drink “oh right, and what exactly did you want to do when you got here then?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written in my phone (largely at work- oooops) So apologies if any issues. But, enjoy!

Jade sat with McGonnaghal for about thirty minutes as the older witch explained in more detail about the detention process and what Jade should do when one inevitably came up.

As Harry and Ron hadn’t been given the detention by a specific teacher, they were being given off to whoever needed them, namely Filch and Lockhart.

She was too distracted to really care or concentrate, thankful when the conversation seemed to be wrapping up.

 

“Anything else you wanted to speak about after your first few lessons?”

“I don’t think so, so far they’ve all been okay. I thought the Slytherin’s might be an issue but I’ve not arrested any of their parents so far, so that’s a bonus”

“If it happens, we will deal with it. Now, let’s not discuss such things”

“Oliver Wood says he’s starting quidditch practice this weekend, don’t know if I’m allowed to show House bias when it comes to Quidditch though?”

“You’re able to support your old team that’s fine, just obviously only to a point”

“To be honest, with Sprout not here as much I am worried that I’ll be pretty much having to run Hufflepuff. I’ve had to deal with several groups of highly emotional or arguing students already. Has everyone forgotten that I wasn’t even in bloody Hufflepuff?”

Minerva just raised an eyebrow.

“No I certainly remember you were in Gryffindor, partially because you were such a model student, but quite largely because not long after you graduated I had inspectors from the department of magical law enforcement questioning me about how one of my students had managed to become an animagus underage, and I had to speak at the trial”

Jade pulled a face, looking genuinely apologetic.

McGonnaghal had done nothing at the closed trial except say that Jade was one of her best and brightest students, loudly said that fact she was being prosecuted was crazy, and had then been quite adamant that Jade should be praised for achieving such a difficult thing at such a young age.

It wasn’t that anyone disagreed, but Jade had refused to say how she had managed the transformation, and if she’d given that information up she likely would have walked out in the clear. Jade had promised Peter, Sirius and James that she wouldn’t mention their involvement, nor Remus’ either, as he had helped them a lot as well.

 

 

Not long after, Jade managed to make her excuses and leave. By this point she had made her mind up about where she was going to go, and walked down the deserted corridors with an invisibility charm over her, which was a very tricky spell, she’d used it so frequently for work that it was second nature now.

 

It was only as she got to his door that Jade let the charm slide off, knocking gently.

 

Severus was wearing just the white shirt he wore under his teaching robes and long waistcoat, and the black trousers he’d had on earlier, just wearing black socks on his feet and holding a crystal etched glass with fire whiskey in it.

He didn’t look surprised to see her and moved to the side, letting her in and closing the door behind her.

“What do you want?”

“I’ve just sat with Minerva for half an hour and all I could think about was getting back down here to you”

There was a hint of a smirk on his lips as he sipped the drink “oh right, and what exactly did you want to do when you got here then?”

No one ever said Jade Greenlake did things by halves, or that she was particularly shy, so she simply pulled off her light grey jumper, wearing nothing underneath but a black bra, standing in just that, jeans and her black converse.

Severus didn’t care that the tight clench of his jaw and the Bob of his Adam’s apple gave away how he felt.

Jade knew what she did to him, they’d been playing at this since they were 15.

 

Severus gulped the drink down in one go and moved towards her, simultaneously pushing her back against the rough stone wall and put the etched glass on the mantelpiece above the unlit fire and placed a hand beside her head, leaning against the wall, the other trailed lazily down her body.

Jade swallowed slightly, trying not squirm but not caring how eager she looked as his long fingers fluttered over her cleavage, down the lace edges of her bra, over her shoulders, down over her stomach and then undid the button and the zip of her jeans.

A warm hand slipped into her black lace underwear and Jade let out a barely constrained groan that made him smirk, voice quiet and restrained “want to tell me why you’re here then Greenlake? Something you wanted?”

She shuddered slightly as his fingers moved in the exact way he knew she liked “I-oh- Oh goddddd- I just want you”

Severus leant down to whisper into her ear “good answer”

She practically shivered at his words and was suddenly he was kissing her, having to lower his head to bridge the height gap between them as his fingers kept moving in just the way that made her toes curl and her breath catch in her throat.

Jade was sure that the entire ministry of magic and every teacher in the school could walk in now and she wasn’t about to stop as her body shuddered and her mouth let out a frankly obscene stream of groans, holding on to Severus’ arm to try and keep herself as he just smirked and kept moving his hand.

Jade wondered if her own pupils were as wide and intense as Severus’ when he pulled back to look at her.

“Fuck, you don’t know what you do to me”

There was quite an obvious height difference between them but the fact he was so much taller meant that Jade could feel something very obvious poking in to the top of her hip and pushed her body against it a little “I think I can feel what I’m doing to you”

There was a noise between a groan and a growl from him before he managed to bite out the words “bedroom. Now”

 

 

 

Jade was shiny with sweat and sat there naked except for the sheet over her lap, otherwise naked.

He’d seen her naked enough times now to have no inhibitions around Severus, they’d had sex when it was all awkward, blushed fumbling and muttered ‘was that okay’ afterwards. Then they’d been together as they got older, and there was no more questions as he learned exactly what made her eyes roll back in her head and what didn’t really do anything for her.

Severus had seen her scars, even before they had been scars, back when they were fresh, black and red welts across her shoulder and chest, and he hadn’t looked at her any different, he’d looked at her with concern over how low she seemed, not at the dark magic injury everyone else had looked horrified by. Even once she was healed, Severus had still kissed all over her body, not really making any different attention to the scars, and it clearly didn’t bother him at all.

 

Jade rolled her neck, stretching her body out.

“Jesus, that wasn’t half bad. We shouldn’t have wasted the last year not doing that”

Severus stretched under the sheets, feeling languid and every muscle was relaxed “well, you were abroad and then half dead in St Mungo’s so not really ideal”

“No, you’re probably right. Don’t think that’s part of the prescribed healing process is it”

He laughed, resting a hand on her leg before looking at her “I’m glad you’re better now”

“Well I’m doing even better after that”

He laughed again, shaking his head as Jade kicked the sheet out a bit so it covered her legs as she slid down, so that they were both laying under it.

“You know how weird it is to have sex at your old school?”

“What do you think we were doing back then?”

“Yes, yes I know. Stop trying to be funny. I mean no one thinks of the teachers having lives outside of teaching, and the last thing I wanted to think of back then was two of my teachers having sex”

“Yes but potions and Herbology for us was Slughorn and Woodger, and she was about 1,0000 years old so it’s not quite the same”

Jade grinned and turned so that were facing each other and she didn’t miss that his eyes flickered down to her uncovered chest quickly and appreciatively before going back to her eyes.

“Can we draw a line under everything. I think we just keep apologising, and we keep messing up, it’s ridiculous”

He nodded “deal”

“Also, when you said the other week, when I was here, and you asked me if it meant something, the two of us. Well it did, of course it did. It’s always been you, hasn’t it”

Severus had this mask of a cold, uncaring, emotionless person around most people, but didn’t bother around Jade, and so let his face fall into one of obvious surprise.

She’d inferred it before, but he’d never really known if she was being serious or meant it in the way it sounded, but here she was saying it in a way that there was no double meaning, no alternative interpretation.

“Jade- you know there’s never been anyone else, not really”

They’d both slept with other people, that wasn’t really any big secret, but the fact they had meant so much to each other was nothing they’d really properly addressed and he looked incredibly wary as he said it.

Jade saw that and leant forward, giving him a gentle kiss to reassure him before moving back and smiling gently “so....”

“So.... where do we go from here?”

Jade shrugged “well, are you seeing anyone?”

Severus just laughed at that “I’ve been a bit hung up on you since you left to really think about anyone else. Why would I want to anyway, when you’re here in my bed”

She smirked and he rested a hand on her side, thumb rubbing gently over the smooth skin.

“Jade I’m serious, I don’t want anyone else, and I want to be pretty selfish and have you to myself. Ive been wanting you for so long now, I don’t really want anyone else to have you either”

Jade knew what he meant, ‘I don’t want to see other people, and I don’t want you to either, but I’m too awkward to say that’.

“I don’t particularly want to share either. So I guess that’s settled then, we’re starting where we left off”

“We’ll keep it between us though, obviously”

He felt her still a little under his touch

“I don’t want to sneak around. We snuck around during school, and now we’re back here you want us to do the same thing?”

“Jade, how do you think this would work? Can you imagine what the rest of the world would think? You’re Jade Greenlake, you are probably the most famous auror for decades, your dad was a famous inventor, and your nephew is the famous Harry Potter. What do you think they would say if you were dating Severus Snape?” He motioned to the dark mark on his forearm, as if she wasn’t well aware of its presence “you think everyone would accept you with someone who’s got one of these?”

“Well, for one you were pardoned, and you were given complete immunity. Also, who I see isn’t any of anyone else’s business, and I thought you’d known by now that I really don’t give a shit what anyone else thinks about me”

“Jade, please, I don’t want people looking at you and wondering if you’re under the Imperious Curse or something. Can we just keep this...between us?”

“So what, I’ll be your dirty little secret?”

Severus looked exasperated “I’m not saying no one in the world can know. I assume you’d be telling Martha before the morning anyway, and Claire and Jacob are fine to know. Jade, I’m not asking you to do an unbreakable vow with me or anything, I just don’t want you to have any problems because of, well, because of me”

There was a long pause and Jade thought hard, and Severus found himself having to hold back looking inside her head, not that he would see anything, she was good at the mental barriers the second someone tried, but it was so tempting to work out what the hell she was thinking. Then she suddenly spoke

“okay. I get it. For now at least. I’m not being some sneaky little dirty secret, but for now, just between us”

“I assume you are including Martha and Claire in the ‘just us’?”

“Well, yeah, as if you weren’t going to tell Jacob”

He shrugged in agreement as she was probably right “that’s fair enough. If harry ever finds out he’ll probably disown you, he doesn’t exactly like me”

“This might shock you, but I wasn’t planning on discussing my sex life with my teenage nephew. I should get back to my rooms, might not help keep this under wraps”

 

 

Jade had slipped back to her own rooms after a quick kiss and had slept heavily, every muscle relaxed and stretched. She’d woken up in a better mood than she had in a long time, practically skipping to breakfast.

It was as she was eating some toast and feeling incredibly happy that she realised just how much better an orgasm really could make you feel. God, Claire was right about why she’d been so uptight... probably best not to give her the satisfaction of knowing that though.

 

Jade had another day of classes, though Mandrake’s with four classes of second years back to back meant that she was shattered by the end of the day, and pliers through her dinner to get to the teachers lounge for a glass of wine.

 

She and Severus were acting like nothing had happened, just talking but nothing more intense or different than the week before not to arouse any suspicion. He was sat doing some marking by the window in the lounge whilst she was sat by herself to one side reading Witch Weekly Magazine and drinking a large glass of red wine.

 

On the sofa to the side of her was many other teachers including Gilderoy Lockhart who was quite happy with his classes considering one had ended with him running out and leaving a bunch of flying creatures for the students to sort out.

 

His voice carried over the lounge “Jade my dear, we haven’t talked today. Do tell me, What was it like in Azkaban, with the murderers and the criminals?”

The room went a little quiet and still as people listened in and Jade’s eyes narrowed slightly, not looking up from her magazine “well, in case you’ve forgotten, I was thrown in there because I was a criminal myself”

“Well, not many people thought you deserved the three months in there”

Her voice was flat “Good for them”

“I heard that you didn’t say a word to anyone for the entire three months, didn’t make a noise for 90 days, is that true?”

Jade knew there was no malice in his words, frankly Lockhart was too stupid for that, he just looked genuinely intrigued. She supposed that she was a bit of an anomaly, she was probably the only person to go to the prison and come out, still allowed to be a member of society, and frankly a very well regarded one.

Jade just threw the magazine to one side and stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

 

 

 

Jade hadn’t really put much thought into the Marauders Map since she’d come back to Hogwarts. It was quite far down her list of issues but after spending most of the previous night tangled in bed with the potions Professor she gathered it was probably best if she made sure no one could see that if it had found its way into the hands of a student.

Jade didn’t know that it was currently in the hands of the Weasley twins but thankfully they hadn’t seen her movements on it the previous night as it had been in the bottom of their trunk whilst everyone celebrated the start of the new school year in the common room.

All of the marauders had known that there was a spell to cover your movements on the map (just in case it got into the ages of a teacher) and Jade had overheard it one Easter break when the boys were all at her parents house and James had got particularly angry after Sirius had later shown her exactly how to do it, though Padfoot has just shrugged and said ‘she was going to work it out anyway!’.

The only downside was that if anyone used it, then a small little padlock symbol appeared in the top right hand corner, which told any of them using it that one of them had concealed themselves, though Jade, Peter, Sirius, James and Remus has known how to undo the charm, she knew that no one outside of them did.

Also as far as Jade was aware, Sirius was in prison, Remus wasn’t even at Hogwarts, James and Peter were dead, so no one had access to unlock the charm anyway.

 

She’d made a mental note to cast it any time she or Severus might get caught, though she didn’t tell him about the map itself, as that was likely to cause a whole raft of problems, especially as she wasn’t even sure it still existed.

 

 

Severus had left the teachers lounge not long after her and made his way to her rooms, locking the door behind him. He was glad to see that she was mostly unpacked now, and glanced at the pictures on the walls and windowsills, smiling slightly at them.

Jade was sat on the grey sofa with the colourful throw and cushions, her shoes off and legs crossed, looking at her knees like they were the most interesting thing in the room.

“Was I being childish?”

“No. He was being a complete shit, but to be fair to him he doesn’t even know he’s doing it”

That made her smile a little and Severus day down beside her with a sigh and looked at the wall for a second, thinking before he spoke.

“You know you’ve never spoken to me about Azkaban”

“Not my proudest moment”

“I meant about how it was when you were there”

“It’s a prison, and it’s guarded by Dementors, what do you think it was like? It was fucking awful. I was in there with people I’d helped have arrested, so it’s not like I was well liked. Then again it’s not like a muggle prison, you don’t get time out of your cells with each other. I got some time each day to get some air because I wasn’t exactly a threatening prisoner, but we never went out with other people, and I didn’t speak because, well” she just shrugged, looking dejected “I didn’t have anyone to talk to, and nothing to say”

Severus just put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her against his side, kissing her hair gently and they sat like that for a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Love, kudos and comments always appreciated! X


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ministry meetings and the Chamber is Opened

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was meant to be a quick chapter, but is 9 pages on word. One day I'll do a short one!

Jade had ignored Lockhart and accepted his profuse apologies for upsetting her, and tried her best to ignore him for the next few days.

She was incredibly busy, not exactly used to having a rigid schedule to work to, as she’s essentially been able to work her own hours and often from home with the Ministry.

She had barely seen Severus except in passing until Friday, where she was teaching her sixth year Slytherin class in a double period at the end of the day, and was very happy with their progress.

Much like the younger years in the House, they responded well to her light, gentle way of teaching, happily joking with students and giving out house points when earned.

After assigning homework and reading to the tired looking students, they all said goodbye and headed back up to the castle, the sun low in the sky and it was still warm.

Jade was just packing up her things when she glanced up at a students quiet voice.

“Professor, can I have a word?”

She looked up and saw Lucas Farris there looking awkward once the rest of the class had left.

He was average height, with dark blonde-brown hair that was slightly curly and he had a few freckles across his lightly tanned skin.

“Something I can do for you Mr Farris?”

The boy looked scared and spoke quietly “I wanted you to know, before it comes out and it looks like I lied to you or tried to keep a secret... or do you know already?”

“I don’t have a clue what you’re on about”

“My dad... he left, well me and mum left when I was about 5 because he was bad, he was horrible, to me and to her, and finally she got the courage and left him”

Jade looked nonplussed “Okay...”

“Farris is my stepfathers surname, my biological dads surname is McLeish”

Jade’s hand clenched so hard on the branch she was holding that it crushed beneath her palm.

“I, Uh. I didn’t know. Well, I heard he had a son”

“He wasn’t thrilled that we moved on, I was worried when I heard you were teaching... mum heard he was arrested and we heard in the news you were in St Mungo’s and put two and two together. You caught him didn’t you?”

She said nothing and he carried on, looking more nervous still.

“He’s a murderer. He killed one of those auror twins, I have to live with it that he’s my father, but I didn’t want you to think.... I don’t know... I wanted you to hear it from me”

Jade just looked shocked. She didn’t think he was automatically a bad person, it really wasn’t the boys fault who his father was, but she was just staggered.

She had been searching for McLeish for years, and it had nearly killed her, literally.

Despite her better judgement Jade glanced inside his mind, careful not to let him know what she was doing, and there was nothing in there but fear of both his father and what her reaction would be.

“I’m surprised, but you can’t help who your father is. I would never have held it against you, I need you to know that. You’re one of my brightest students, that’s all I need to know. Okay?”

“You’re not...?”

“Not angry? No of course I’m not. I was just surprised. Now, get yourself back up to the castle for dinner, and make sure you get that homework to me by Tuesday”

“Thank you professor. I don’t even know if he knows I’m alive, mum’s husband was a muggle, so I think if he found us, he’d probably not be too happy”

“He’s in prison now Mr Farris, now, off you go, I don’t want students walking around in the dark”

 

  
Jade had made her way up to the castle deep in thought, and had picked at her dinner, not saying anything and clearly thinking hard.

Later that night she was curled up on her sofa, a blanket over her legs as Severus came through the floo in a woosh of light that made her glance up from the newspaper in her hands.

Severus had explained that the teachers rooms could all floo _out_ but the person who the room belonged to had to pre-allow someone to enter their rooms. It was still a school, so they were probably worried that students would appear into teachers rooms over Christmas or something, in some type of prank. Jade understood the principle though, and she and Severus had opened the connection between their rooms at other ends of the castle, and she was glad it saved her skulking through the castle under invisibility charms.

“So, why didn’t you tell me about Farris being McLeish’s son?”

He sat down on the other side of the sofa, putting her legs on his lap, seeing that she was curious rather than annoyed. “Because no one was meant to know. His family are under official protection, though I don’t know if that applies now you caught Daniel McLeish? Anyway, no one was meant to know, he’s not exactly proud of it. How do you know?”

“He told me, nearly broke down, he was terrified of what I would think and say”

He leant back against the cushions, gently rubbing her lower legs absentmindedly “And what do you think about it?”

“I don’t think it’s his fault who his dad is”

“Even though his father killed your friend?”

Jade put the newspaper down on the floor “Daniel McLeish did, and he was an arrogant twat who boasted about it, but he’s been raised by his mum and a muggle, so I have enough faith that he’s not like McLeish. Anyway, you’re here now, how was your day?”

“Well, about as awful as expected, though no detentions today. Do you still have some wine?”

Jade nodded “Over in the case by the fireplace, get me one as well will you?”

 

 

That night, as Jade lay sleeping in her four  poster bed, hair and limbs sprawled out, Severus felt himself sinking into the darkness and warmth of sleep, mind sinking into the memory of their first kiss.

 

_They were practicing for the upcoming duelling contest, which they had both ended up winning._

_She had stolen the Marauder’s Map from Sirius’ bag with a note that just said ‘I’ll return it in the morning’. She’d wanted to make sure that neither her brother nor his idiot friends could track her and Severus down, and they had gone to the Room of Requirement and practiced against each other for several hours._

_Jade was starting to tire and had been knocked to her feet by one of his spells._

_Severus grinned, clearly smug as he helped pull her to her feet “you can do better than that”_

_“I was just going easy on you”_

_“Well you won’t win if you go easy on people, that’s not really how duelling works”_ __  
  


_Jade just poked her tongue out at him “can we carry on or are you going to mope all night”_

_He laughed freely and Jade leant in and kissed him gently, pulling back when she realised he wasn’t kissing her back, seeing wide eyed confusion._

_“Sorry, I thought... I’m sorry”_

_“Did your brother out you up to this? Trying to embarrass me?”_

_Jade was clearly genuinely confused and her face showed it. “I’m sorry I don’t get what you’re on about? You think James told me to come and kiss you...? Is that really what you think of me? You think I’d go along with something like that?”_

_“No, but I don’t see why... I don’t understand”_

_Jade just looked at him sympathetically, touching his upper arm gently “James doesn’t know I’m here, none of them do. I wouldn’t do anything to upset you, I just thought, I don’t know, maybe I misread the signals, I’m sorry”_

_Severus bit his bottom lip, seeing the genuine confusion and hurt on Jade’s face before taking a slightly shaking hand, holding her face and leaning down to kiss her incredibly gently on the lips._

_It was shy and timid, and there was clear relief when she pressed her lips back against his._

_They were only 14 so it wasn’t exactly mind blowing and sexually charged, but it was gentle and sweet, and Severus slept gently and happily at the memory._

 

  
Severus had woken up in a good mood, lying next to the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Jade had been grateful that it was Saturday morning, which meant that she’d made it through the first week of teaching relatively unscathed.

They’d been up before breakfast started, which meant they had the time to get lazily ready.

Jade had slept naked, which meant that when she’d started kissing Severus and had crawled up on top of him, legs straddling his own, it hadn’t exactly taken him long to get the message.

 

Severus had taken the floo back to his own room after they had shared a shower, so that they weren’t going to be seen and people wouldn’t start talking. She’d pulled on tight black jeans, a black T-shirt and a thick oxblood coloured cable type slouch cardigan, grey ankle boots and a long thin chain necklace.

She’d run to breakfast, seeing a few student look at her with surprise at her clothing, but then most teachers were a lot older, and didn’t exactly wear jeans.

Jade had glanced around for Harry and asked Percy Weasley who had said that Oliver Wood had woken up incredibly early – Jade found it hilarious the mismatched boys had to share a bedroom- and that he had woken the Quidditch team up and they were practicing in the grounds.

She’d thanked him, taking a slice of marmite covered toast from the Gryffindor table and headed out to the grounds as Severus had come in, flashing him a quick wink before heading into the sunshine.

 

 

By the time Jade got to the Quidditch grounds, she was the only adult, and the place was in a state of mild chaos.

Ron Weasley was vomiting up slugs, and the Slytherin and Gryffindor team were all either aiming wands at each other or just about to throw punches.

Jade shouted in her best Auror voice “What in _Merlin’s name_ is going on here?”

Everyone stopped suddenly, looking scared, and Ron sat up a little from the ground.

“Malfoy. He called Hermione a Mudblood”

Jade’s head whipped around and Draco Malfoy for the first time in his life looked small.

“You ever use that word again, and I’ll see to it that you have detention until you’re 18. I’ll not give one for this time as we can hope that it’s blissful ignorance and that you didn’t know what a horrible, poisonous word that was. If I hear one more time you’ve used it, you’re going to be in detention every Saturday for a whole year. Oh and Professor Snape will be told about this”

Draco tried to draw himself up a little “I’ll tell my father”

Jade just shrugged

“Go ahead, I do enjoy a little chat with Lucius. I’m off to the Ministry now actually, he’s welcome to meet me anytime”

She looked down at Ron, who was still looking unwell “Get yourself to the hospital wing, Poppy should be able to help, it’s quite a simple spell. I’m at the Ministry for the day, and it’s the weekend, please try and all keep out of trouble, or if that is too much to ask, please annoy a different teacher with your issues”

It was completely unnecessary but as Jade walked away, she transformed into the black jaguar, stalking through the grass down to the gates. It wasn’t any better or easier than walking, but she knew the little blonde git was terrified, and the Jaguar had a distinctly amused glint in its eye as she headed down to the gates to apparate out of the wards.

 

 

Jade was still a registered Auror, and that had meant that she had agreed to come to any meetings specifically for the senior team, or the ones with the entire department. She’d agreed to that with Scrimgeour and it was the only stipulation that had been given to allow her to stay registered and teach.

The meeting was about McLeish, and whilst Jade walked through the Atrium and the department with her usual confidence, when she got into the large meeting room, she felt small and sick.

There was 16 other people in the room, not including Scrimgeour and Kingsley, who were stood at the front, obviously waiting for Jade who was the last one in.

It was a fairly nondescript room with a large U shaped line of chairs all filled with senior Aurors, about half in their black robes with the red crest on the left side of the chest.

Kingsley and Scrimgeour were stood awkwardly at the front of the room, where there was a large picture of Daniel McLeish attached to the wall. He was in his late 30’s, short cropped light blonde hair, a slightly gaunt, hollow look in his thin face, and wild eyes. The picture was of his arrest at Azkaban, and he was in a striped jumpsuit and holding his prisoner number, blinking but staring out at the room with pure hatred.

Jade briefly thought of the wild eyed mania that Sirius had shown in his own prison picture, but buried that down with all the other painful memories, aware that her own picture wasn’t too forgiving.

Kingsley managed an encouraging smile “Ah, Jade you made it”

“You made it clear I had to come, or I lose my licence”

He made an exasperated noise “Okay, you want to sit?”

She just shook her head, leaning against the wall beside the closed door “I’m fine here, can we get on with this”

Kingsley and Rufus Scrimgeour started talking, and Jade found herself not really listening. It was really an update on the case against him, where the legal team had got to, and then the situation about his son and ex wife.

Jade saw that Alastair Moody was sat in the room, hands gripping his wooden staff so tightly that his knuckles were white, but at least he was paying attention.

Jade felt herself getting hotter and sweatier as the glaring face of Daniel McLeish stared at her for longer and longer.

The face brought back the memory of that laugh that had rung out in that crumbling house when he had realised that both Gideon and Fabian were dead.

Bellatrix had apparated away, not caring if Jade was going to be killed by the dark magic riddling its way in to her body, or if it would just slowly torture her.

That had been the worst thing about that day, hearing that laughter from the other side of the wall. That manic, fucking, laughter.

Now feeling her body drenched in sweat, heart pounding, bile rising in her throat and the sound of McLeish’s laughter ringing in her ears, she felt panic rising.

Jade left swiftly, hurrying in to the toilets and throwing up in a bin. She was grateful that the women’s toilets were empty and sat on the cold tile floor, back against the wall and closed her eyes to steady herself.  
  
She knew the footsteps even before the door swung open and he came in.  
The uneven footsteps were a dead giveaway, let alone the extra noise from the staff he used.

The door swung shut behind him and Jade didn’t even bother open her eyes as she muttered darkly

“Alistair, I hate you”

He just sighed and meant against the closed door “okay”  
He’d come to check if she was alright after seeing the picture of McLeish and having to hear them talking about the man for so long, so he was a bit surprised when her next sentence was about something completely different.

“I lost my best friends and you have barely looked at me since. I needed my friend and you just fucked off”

He looked angry, voice lowering even though there was no one else there “I lost **_everything_** ”

“You don’t have the monopoly on grief. Gideon and Fabian meant a lot to me too”

“You know what I’m talking about”

“Yeah, I do. I promised you I’d never say anything and I never have and never will. Did you think that offering me some _degree_ of fucking _comfort_ would have killed you? They approached me at school for this job, I gave up a lot to work with the three of you, it’s nearly killed me a million times, don’t you wonder why I’ve hung on so long? If anyone else had asked me, or if they’d survived, I would have probably left, but I’ve stayed because they wanted me here, and despite how you’ve been in the last ten years, it’s not my fault they’re dead!”

“I never said it was your fault”

“You as good as did. Don’t you think hearing them die whilst Lestrange got to me was bad enough? I know you lost him, you lost them both, but you know what Alastair, fuck you, because I lost them and you, and you didn’t fucking care did you”

He opened his mouth to say something but Jade just stood up shakily and shook her head, muttering

“save it, this has been a bad enough day already without whatever crap you’re going to say” and apparated away.

 

Jade was in too bad a mood to head back to the school, and apparated in to her Diagon Alley apartment.

She sat on the sofa, breathing and counting to ten to calm herself down.

That didn’t work so she tried it again, and then two more times.

That still wasn’t really helping so Jade tucked her wand in to the back of her jeans and headed out to the Leaky Cauldron, sitting at the end of the bar and drinking three large measures of Fire Whiskey, finally feeling her heart rate slow down.

A few people tried to make conversation with her but Jade just ignored them, finishing her last drink, paying her bill and then going down Diagon Alley to collect the things she needed, putting off heading to Hogwarts.

 

 

Harry and Ron had equally rubbish detentions from the flying car incident. Harry had been helping Lockhart with his fan mail, and Ron had been cleaning trophies -without magic- for Filch.

Both of them had hated every second, and had met after, attempting to head down to dinner before it ended.

Ron looked peaky “I’ve been cleaning old trophies, and kept throwing up slugs on them so had to do it again and again. You know your dad won a load for Quidditch, and your aunt got tons and tons”

“For quidditch?”

“Nah, she got them for everything else in the world I think. Duelling and also pretty much every club and society and tournament there is. Tell you what, I’m surprised she had time for school work with all of that going on”

Everyone was in the Great Hall, and Harry heard the mysterious voice again, though Ron had no clue what he was on about.

Harry ran along the corridors to follow the voice, before coming to a large puddle of water, both of them looking up and seeing the message on the wall in what may have been blood.

It was a few seconds later that everyone left the Great Hall, heading out and down the corridor, everyone coming to a sharp stop.

There was a silence and then screaming, which attracted the teachers quickly.

Jade had returned about an hour before, having sobered up with a spell, and still in a foul mood.

She had intended to go the dinner in the Great Hall but couldn’t face seeing any more sobbing Hufflepuff students, or Gilderoy Lockhart, worried she would end up hexing someone.

She had gone to the kitchens and the house elves had been happy to make her some sandwiches, and she had been heading back down to the entrance hall at the time of the scream, so wasn’t that far behind the students.

Seeing the sea of stunned students, Jade pushed through them, seeing the writing on the wall above the hanging cat, and Ron and her nephew in the middle, looking a bit lost.

She read the writing in her head

_‘The chamber of secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir…beware’_

Jade groaned, voice quite “As if this day couldn’t get any worse”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't even know if anyone is still reading this!  
> Fingers crossed?!  
> Never sure if people want actual full blown smut or implied sexy times!  
> Kudos, love and comments always appreciated.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the Quidditch match should be before the duelling incident but we're switching things up.

The students had all been sent to their dormitories, except Harry and Ron through Hermione had stayed behind and no one had really been bothered enough to ask her to go as well.

Lockhart had loudly stated they could use his office as it was nearest, and the three children, McGonnaghal, Lockhart, Dumbledore, Snape, Jade and Filch all headed down the now deserted corridors to the office.

Filch had the cat in his hands and was gently sobbing, and Harry turned to his Aunt, looking worried and she just smiled encouragingly and her voice was barely above a whisper “I know you didn’t do it, just tell them the truth”

That seemed to make both Harry and Ron relax a little as they went into Lockhart’s office, which was covered in pictures of him.

Jade made the three children sit down as Dumbledore examined Mrs Norris and Lockhart started telling everyone, though mostly trying to impress Jade, about how good he was at reversing curses.

Albus stood up “Well, she isn’t cursed, she’s petrified”

Gilderoy looked briefly thrown but composed himself “Oh of course, well I’m sure I can-”

Jade cut him off before he could annoy her any further “I can do it. Mandrakes are in the greenhouse, they’ll be ready soon and we can make a potion. _Severus_ can make a potion”

 

 

Jade had said she would walk the three Gryffindor students up to their dormitories and she looked tired, walking beside them up the deserted corridors, listening silently as Ron explained to Harry what a squib was and only really paid attention when Harry said her name.

“Jade, we didn’t do anything to the cat”

“Yeah I know Harry. I’m not annoyed, I’m just quiet because today has been pretty much awful”

“Were you at the ministry?”

She just nodded, hands inn her pockets and clearly unwilling to talk about it.

“I heard a voice, that’s why we were there. Ron didn’t but I heard a voice but couldn’t see anyone. Said it was going to kill someone”

Jade just looked

“Yes. Right, here’s the portrait, you three need to get some sleep, and I’ll talk to you in the morning, okay?”

Jade gave Harry a slightly surprised look but didn’t seem too worried “Harry this is a seriously old castle full of magic and ghosts, I’d assume it was a ghost, some pretty weird things happen here”

They were standing on a set of stairs that were moving by themselves, so Jade’s point seemed to make a lot of sense and Harry relaxed a little.

 

 

Jade had made sure that the three students were in their beds before she had gone back to her room, drunk two large whisky’s and collapsed on to the bed. She wanted Severus but the emotion of the day was just too much.

Frankly, what she wanted was Alastair back, she just wanted her friend, but he was so terrified that she would tell everyone his secret that he was still pushing her away, even all these years later. She was too tired to move, falling asleep fully clothed on the top of the bedsheets, face down.

 

The rest of the weekend was rubbish, and the next week of classes continued as before, with focus on the Mandrake’s, though Jade was in a clearly bad mood, though she didn’t take it out on her classes, but was just a little more quiet than usual.

After having apparated away from Moody, he had written to her the following day but she hadn’t even been able to read it yet, the envelope still sealed and at the bottom of her bedside drawer, where she kept the framed photo of her and Severus.

Jade had been feeling stir crazy by the end of the week, still not used to being back at the castle and having to work to a rigid schedule. She was thrilled when Lockhart had announced that he was going to teach the younger students to duel, and it wasn’t that she particularly thought they needed it, she was just excited to see Gilderoy Lockhart make a fool of himself.

He’d asked Jade if she would help out and she’d lied, saying she was too busy, and he’d then asked Severus, which had literally filled Jade with glee. Severus was an excellent duellist, and Lockhart was… well she wasn’t sure but she wasn’t convinced, and so had come down to see on the Friday night, mingling with the excited students.

 

It was after lesson hours so Jade was wearing jeans and a black hoodie with her hair down and had a grin on her face as she stood beside Harry, the glint back in her eyes for the first time since she’d been to the Ministry the previous week.

Severus and Lockhart were both up on the platform preparing to duel and Harry asked her quietly “Who’s your money on then?”

She laughed “Snape, 100 times over, Snape”

“You don’t think Lockhart-?”

She laughed even more at that, hands in her pocket “Ah, no, harry. Firstly, Severus is one of the best duellists of our generation, and I’ll include myself and several years auror training in that, secondly, well... I shouldn’t speak badly about other teachers should I?”

Lots of the students had laughed when Snape had floored Lockhart, so at least Jade’s chuckle hadn’t been quite so obvious.

Lockhart looked dejected and as Snape went back into the crowd Jade leant over and muttered into his ear “that was pretty much the best moment of my life”

He spoke quietly back “he’ll probably write this into his next shitty book”

Jade tried to cover her laughter but it didn’t work and Lockhart looked over “oh, I forgot we had such an accomplished and highly awarded auror in our midst. Professor Greenlake, would you like a go?”

 She tried not to laugh again “Ah, no thanks. Auror training is a bit different, you don’t have all the time for... _theatrics_. I think Severus demonstrated perfectly”

 

Lockhart had asked Draco and Harry to come up, and everything had been fine until the smirking blonde had produced a snake, and Harry had started hissing at it.

Jade’s eyes had widened but she had looked more baffled than nervous, the students however looked petrified.

 That had really muted the evening, and the duelling demonstration had quickly broken up after that.

 Jade had said goodnight to Harry, Ron and Hermione, and she had stayed behind to speak to Severus in the hall.

 When everyone left the hall, Harry noticed Snape and Jade talking, his aunt grinning and laughing at something as his potions teacher just shook his head, but didn’t look annoyed.

 

 

They eventually made their way back down to her bedroom, and it was late by now, the moon high in the sky.

Severus looked tired, having dealt with several difficult students in what had become a very long day.

“That was literally one of my favourite things I’ve ever seen. I needed that”

He grinned “you know, Harry speaking Parsletongue will be all over the school by the morning”

“It’s not that’s strange a talent”

“Yes, well _you and I_ know that, but I think that the teenagers are going to think it’s a bit suspicious, what with everything going on with the chamber”

“They’re teenagers, anything can be gossip”

“I know as well as you that Harry isn’t exactly likely to be the ‘heir of Slytherin’ but I think you’ll have a lot of people asking questions about what House your family have been sorted in to”

“I’ll cross that bridge when it comes. It’s quite low on my issues to be honest. I’ll speak to Harry tomorrow about it. He’s probably getting a lot of shit already to be honest”

Severus yawned widely and gave Jade a quick kiss, sitting on the arm of the sofa and rubbing his eyes “I’d be pretty shocked if the Heir of Slytherin was in Gryffindor but teenagers aren’t exactly easy to explain logic to”

That made her laugh and he pulled at her hands, so that she was stood between his open legs where he was sat.

“I’ve barely seen you since you went to the Ministry, everything okay?”

“No, it was awful, but can we talk about it another time? There’s something else I want to do right now”

There was a glint in her eyes that Severus didn’t miss, stifling another yawn.

Jade grinned, head cocked to the side “well if you’re too tired to even get it up-“

She was cut off as he stood swiftly, meaning their bodies were flush against each other and he grabbed her hand, roughly pulling it down to feel just how hard he was.

“We’re all fine in that department trust me”

She didn’t move the hand, instead pushing her hand gently against him and hearing the slight change in his breathing.

 

It had been too long, and Jade was incredibly tightly wound with stress and frustration. If he hadn’t seen it himself, he’d have thought she used magic to undress as it seemed to take only about three seconds before she was naked, roughly pulling off his clothes, a few buttons rolling to the floor but he really didn’t care in that moment.

Severus kissed her hungrily, sitting down on the sofa and pulling her on top of him. They were a mess of hands and clothes until they were suddenly both naked, with him sitting low on the sofa and with Jade straddling their hands roaming wildly over each other.

Jade sank down on to him and stilled for a second, adjusting and kissing him hungrily.

Severus didn’t wait for her for long, hands under her ass, both for a quick squeeze and for leverage lift her, before pushing her back down and he just smirked as her eyes widened and rolled back in her head as she started to move by herself now, though he kept his hands firmly where they were.

“Fuck, Sev I-“

Jade was never much good at conversation during sex, though to be fair he didn’t think there was enough blood still in his brain to talk if she really wanted to.

He wrapped his arm around Jade, so that their bodies were flush against each other, and most of his height was in his legs, so it meant that when sitting they were nearly the same height.

Jade wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her head into the side of his neck, which meant that every time he moved in a way that made her groan a little, he could feel that noise against his skin, and it was driving him wild.

Jade came hard, twitching and clenching as she groaned hard into his neck, glad that Severus had cast silencing charms, especially as a stream of swear words tumbled out her mouth as she went pretty much slack against him. He didn’t let up, only going harder and faster to reach his own climax which came a minute later, a guttural noise coming out of his throat.

They sat there, bodies slick with sweat as she still sat on him, not yet sure if her muscles would allow her to move.

“Fuck”

“Yeah” he just kissed her gently and Jade moved off him, looking like she was going to drift, although they were both feeling cold now the sweat was starting to cool down.

“Jade, get up and into bed”

She grumbled, shaking her head “I can’t go again Sev”

He let out a snort through his nose “no me neither, that’s not what I was saying. Don’t fall asleep on the sofa or you’ll be in a bad mood later. Get your arse into bed now and fall asleep there”

She knew he was right but that didn’t stop the dramatic roll of her eyes as she trailed sleepily to her bedroom, drinking the contraceptive potion on her nightstand.

Jade had been told that the chances of her ever getting pregnant were next to nonexistent, but even so she had taken contraceptive potions regularly since she was about 16.

Before the torture it had been necessary, and after, when the extent of the dark magic had been made clear, along with her chances of having a child, she’d continued to take it just in case. It seemed silly to take a chance on a ‘minute possibility’ she could get pregnant, if it wasn’t 100% a no.

 

 

In the early morning, Severus woke up sleepily, turning over in the sheets and seeing Jade reading a letter at the end of the bed, completely naked.

“My god that’s a sight I could get used to in the mornings”

She jumped a little, not having realised he was awake, and turned with a grin “you’ve seen it all before, it doesn’t look any different”

He moved down the bed, kissing her shoulder gently “it’s not the view. It’s you being here”

She blushed at that and he continued “but the view is phenomenal”  
Jade motioned to the parchment in her hand “Claire wants us to come and visit soon. She’s pretty excited we’re together”

He kissed her shoulder again, stroking a hand through her hair “Yes I know, Jacob sent me a letter yesterday. I always know it’s from him as he either uses muggle paper or he uses parchment but uses biro on it. Biro, on parchment can you imagine?”

“We’ll go soon then”

 

 

They had shared a shower together, that had quickly descended into a tangled mess and Jade was probably more sweaty than she had been beforehand.

They’d been together for so long that Severus knew every single part of her body, and was more than happy to show her that fact.

He’d left with a smirk, taking the floo back to his own rooms, glad that she seemed happier again. Severus had seen the sealed envelope with the letter from Moody, but hadn’t said anything, knowing when she needed space.

 

 

Determined this time to see Harry practicing Quidditch, Jade had thrown on some clothes and headed down to the pitch at the end of the grounds.

It was early on a Saturday morning and the a Gryffindor team were practicing in the cold sunshine of an autumn morning and spotted someone coming down towards the stands as they were hovering in a huddle and debating tactics.

Angelina frowned “who’s that?” They were too high to see and started to get suspicious it was a student from another house watching them and came down to the ground.

Jade was wearing tight jeans, a black slightly faded Rolling Stones T-shirt, black leather jacket and black ankle boots. Her hair was down and slightly curly, and she had a grin on her face as they came over.

“Did you think I was a Hufflepuff watching for tactics?”

George laughed “worse, a Slytherin”

She pulled a mocked offended face “you wound me Weasley. I was chatting with McGonnaghal and she asked me to check in with the team to check we were going to win. She wants us to win but it’s been a while since she played so she sent me down to ‘observe’ or something”

Katie grinned “you were a chaser weren’t you?”

“Yes, briefly, and my brother was a seeker, we had the longest undefeated record, James literally talked about that at his wedding, that’s how seriously he took it!”  
They laughed and Fred agreed “I think Oliver will do the same”

“Right, well do you want to get in the air and I’ll have a watch?”  
  
Jade had given them some pointers and had a long chat with wood whilst everyone else was getting changed in the showers and walked back up to the castle with the entire team.

Katie smiled “you know Professor I barely even recognised you in your own clothes”

Jade laughed, putting her hand in pockets “it’s the weekend, I can wear whatever I want, I always hated wearing robes at the ministry, made me feel like a student again! I’m going out after I get you all back to the castle so just hoping I don’t get stopped to sort anything out”

“Anything exciting?”

She shook her head “just meeting up with an old friend for a drink and spending the weekend at my apartment, I don’t like it being left empty whilst I’m here”

  
  
  
When they finished up the team walked back up to the castle and Jade called after her nephew

“Harry”

He saw that she wanted him to hold back and did, and they stayed several metres behind the rest of the group, out of earshot.

“Can we have a word, I’ll walk you back up to the castle”

They walked slowly, side by side.

“Look, harry, _I_ know you’re not opening the chamber of secrets, and _you_ know you’re not, but I’m hearing these ridiculous rumours that you’re somehow the heir to Slytherin because you can speak to snakes. I wanted to let you know that your mums family was muggles going back centuries and the Potters are actually more pure blood than the Malfoys, not that you should say that to Lucius. Our family didn’t really care about blood purity, my mums mum- your great grandmother- actually sold off a load of the old goblin silver and donated it to the centre for magic and Muggle relations, all to annoy Irma Black who was a pure blood who hated muggles. She thought it was hilarious. Going back generations we’ve been mostly Gryffindor’s, a fair few Ravenclaws and one or two Hufflepuff’s, but not a Slytherin for years. We’re more likely to be related to the Peverell’s than Salazar Slytherin, trust me”

Harry has no clue who the Peverell’s were, having been raised by muggles (though he’d heard the wizarding phrase before), but neither Potter knew at that point that they were in fact related to the Peverell’s, and that the cloak they had both spent time running around the castle in was in fact one of the deathly hallows. Perhaps if they had, they wouldn’t have used it quite so frivolously.   
  
“Thanks, so you don’t think I’m going to go off hunting down Muggle born people then?”

His voice was hollow and Jade sighed “Harry, your mum was a muggle born and so is one of your best friends, if people really thought about it they wouldn’t consider that it could be you. Speaking to snakes is an odd talent but my friend Ted’s daughter can change her nose, hair, chin, skin, lips, teeth, anything she wants in a second just by thinking about it. I’d say that’s a bit stranger than being able to chat to snakes”

“You think so?”

“You know who could do it, sure, but so could other people in history, don’t worry about it too much okay?”

“The sorting hat wanted to put me in to Slytherin, but I said no”

His voice was rushed as he almost tried to backtrack before the words had come out but Jade heard, slowing down as they neared the doors to look at her nephew, who looked awkward.

“Harry, being in Slytherin doesn’t make someone bad or evil, it just means they wear green and a lot of teachers treat them badly for no reason. Some of my best students are Slytherin, it’s a bit of a myth that only Slytherin’s were ever dark wizards, trust me, I’ve arrested and investigated enough to know what I’m talking about. There have been ravenclaw’s, Hufflepuff’s and Gryffindor’s too, in fact someone who was a friend in Gryffindor is in Azkaban right now...”

she trailed off as she thought of Sirius and then came back to normality “and I have a friend from Slytherin who is the bravest man I ever met, so it doesn’t matter where you were meant to go, where you wanted to go, where you ended up, what matters is what you make of yourself, and you’re doing a good enough job so far”

“Thanks”

They were now at the front doors to the school and Jade stopped, putting a hand on her nephew’s shoulder

“The hat wanted to put me in to Ravenclaw, but then said I had a ‘fiery edge’ and put me in Gryffindor. So you’re not the only one”

He breathed with clear relief, and Jade watched him go in the school, before heading back down to the gates to apparate outside of the wards, heading to a very familiar little cottage in Wales.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Love, comments, and kudos always very much appreciated. x


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How does a former Death Eater and terrifying potions teacher spend his weekend? Watching football with a Muggle in Wales...what?

If anyone could see what big bad ex Deatheater Severus Snape was getting up to on his Saturday, they probably wouldn’t believe their eyes.

He was wearing dark blue jeans, a black short sleeved t-shirt and was sat comfortably on a grey sofa in the front room of a little cottage in South Wales, a pair of dark green socks the only thing on his feet.

On the other sofa in the room was Jacob Issa, who was watching the football on the tv with much, much more interest than Severus was.

Jacob wasn’t his actual name, but after going to school in Wales after emigrating with his parents at two years old, the longer Arabic name had been too hard and the nearest thing any students could say was Jacob, and it had stuck.

They were a similar age, though looked very different. Where Severus was pale and tall and too thin, Jacob was athletic and a bit shorter, and his complexion, dark brown hair and brown eyes were unmistakable that he had come from the Middle East, though he had a slightly welsh accent.

They had only received the letter that morning asking them to come down and Jade had replied by owl asking when was best for them to visit, and Claire had replied within half an hour saying they were going to cook a roast dinner that day, so they should come over.

Jade had apparated after speaking to Harry, and Severus had told McGonnaghal he was going to be out of the castle until the following morning -so she could help deal with any Slytherin issues that came up- and had changed into casual clothes and used the floo to get to the house in Wales, arriving around the same time as Jade had.

 

 

Jacob looked irate, pointing at the TV.

“Sev can you believe that passing? Shocking, fucking shocking!”

He laughed “I don’t think I’m even sure which ones England are, are we playing in blue?”

“No mate, that’s France”

“Ah”

“If you can understand quidditch you can understand football”

He grinned and At the moment the two women came back in to the room.

Claire Issa was blonde, petite, pretty and heavily pregnant, wearing a pale blue maternity dress that matched her eyes.

She heaved herself into the seat beside Jacob as Jade came in, floating three beers and a cup of tea with her wand that landed in front of the recipients on the coffee table (Claire having the tea).

Claire had been in Hufflepuff in Severus and Jade’s year, and whilst she had been a fairly good student, she had always been much more interested in music, and so after Hogwarts had turned to teaching music, found a lovely muggle, married and settled down. She had also been one of the few who had known about their relationship whilst at Hogwarts, and they had all spent a lot of time together in the years since the war was over.

Claire’s own family were largely dead, Jade and Severus had no real family to speak of other than Jade having Harry, and Jacob’s parents had disowned him on finding out about Claire. This meant that the four of them had each other, and the friendship worked and it worked incredibly well.

Claire spent barely any time with wizards, teaching muggles and living in a muggle village, and Jacob was amused by the magic and that world but not all that interested.

They both loved having Severus and Jade around, and vice versa. It was the one place where they really got to sit as a couple, and just be normal, without the threat of students or anyone in the outside world finding out.

Looking back, Severus couldn’t believe that he would one day find himself sat in a cottage, drinking a beer with Jade Greenlake curled into him, Claire from school and a muggle on the other side of the room, and his dark mark out and uncovered.

Claire had known he had been a death eater and had once asked to take a closer look at it, but after seeing it wasn’t any different to a normal tattoo, got bored of it.

Jacob had shouted _‘cool tattoo sev’_ before being kicked under the table by Claire the first time he had caught a flash of it.

_Jade had continued making cups of tea and had simply said “do you remember I told you about you know who and the death eaters?”_

_“Yes”_

_“And that Severus was one of them?”_

_“Uh uh”_

_“Well that’s how he communicated with all his followers, he’d touch it and they’d all feel a burn and then apparate to him”_

_Severus hadn’t been aware that Jade had told the muggle about this but found himself unbothered as the younger muggle just nodded thoughtfully “so after he died, it didn’t sort of dry up and fall off?”_

_He had sighed “no, I had somewhat hoped it might”_

_“Sucks. You just look like you got a tattoo as part of some teenage rebellion angst”_

_“Do I look like someone who was in to teenage rebellion?”_

_Jacob laughed at that “no, but then again you were sneaking around having sex with jade behind everyone’s back and didn’t get caught so I’d say that was pretty rebellious”_  

 

That was years ago, and since then Severus had been friends with them both outside of just being with Jade, often spending time with the two of them when Jade had been off on work with the Ministry.

Severus liked being able to have his forearm out, used to covering it in public, especially at the school, even though it was well known that he’d been a Death Eater, it wasn’t exactly something he was proud of.

 

 

When the match got to half time Claire and Jade went back into the little kitchen to check on the food, though Claire sat down almost immediately, back and feet clearly aching as Jade checked on everything.

“So, do you and Severus have to tell anyone that you’re going at it, or are teachers just allowed to?”

“Well, no ones told me either way and I think asking might be a major hint”

“Yeah, true”

“Now don’t pull my head off for asking, but how was the meeting at the Ministry? You ignored my question in your last letter”

Jade sighed, shoulders slumping a little as she pulled the roast potatoes out of the oven and shuffled them so they didn’t stick to the roasting tin.

“I don’t… it was shit, to be honest. McLeish’s picture was on the wall and it just reminded me of my own Azkaban picture, then of Sirius, then it was just that fucking laugh that McLeish had, whilst I was just lying there once Bellatrix had gone, and I was so convinced I was going to die, and the last thing I thought I’d hear would be McLeish just laughing and laughing and _laughing_. So I freaked out and left, threw up in the toilets, then Moody came in, we argued, I told him to fuck off and apparated away”

Claire blinked, taking a second to process what she had said

“You told _Mad Eye Moody_ to fuck off? Merlin, you must not value your life much”

“We used to be close, I’ve always been able to say what I want to him. What difference does it make, he hates me anyway”

“You never did tell me what caused you two to fight” 

Jade just shook her head, staring out the window by the sink “I can’t. I promised I’d never say”

 

 

In the front room Severus was filling Jacob in on what had been going on at the school, and the muggle had been puzzled by the term ‘Squib’ that his friend had used and he’d attempted to explain.

“Right, so a squib is like when wizards have a kid and it’s a muggle?”

“Yes”

“So, if mine and Claire’s baby turns out a muggle, are they a squib?”

“No, because only one of you is a wizard, they would just be classed as a muggle”

“Ah, so if you and Jade had a kid and they weren’t a wizard, they’d be a squib”

Severus just nodded, drinking his beer as Jacob thought for a second.

“Do you _want_ kids?”

“You know Jade can’t have them”

“Well, it’s unlikely, not impossible. Claire said that if you really wanted there are potions and things you can use. I didn’t say _can_ you, I said do you _want_ them?”

Severus chewed the inside of his cheek, playing with the label on his beer distractedly.

“I don’t know, I’ve never really thought about it. I never really imagined I’d have Jade, always seemed so unlikely that I’ve never really thought about it”

“Well, you’ve got her now”

“Yes, but considering who she is, and who I am to the Wizarding world, I don’t think it would ever work”

“I see you’re not saying _‘no’_ just making excuses”

“Oh fuck off”

Jacob just smirked and Claire shouted “Dinner’s ready” from the adjoining kitchen and Severus glared at his friend.

“Don’t mention this to her”

“I’m not an idiot, of course I won’t. You’re sleeping in my spare room tonight though, can you put some silencing charms up if you’re going to be giving it a go though”

His only response was to lightly smack the shorter man around the back of the head as they headed into the kitchen,

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmmm. I wonder what Moody's big bad secret is?
> 
> Comments, love and kudos are always appreciated x


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sexy times ensue...

They had relaxed all afternoon before going to bed, Jade and Severus in the spare bedroom at the end of the corridor in the little cottage.

Jade had changed into her pyjamas which was a black vest type top, and soft, pale blue shorts, trying to brush her hair into some type of tidiness.

Severus was sat on the edge of the bed and tugged at Jade’s hands so she moved towards him and she kissed him gently as he put his hands on her hips, looking up at her with nothing short of adoration, and she felt her heart warm at the gesture.

She felt him pulling her closer and he leant back so he was laid down on the bed as she straddled over him, Goosebumps on her skin where he trailed his fingers over the hot skin and she squirmed with anticipation before Severus flipped them over, so that Jade was lying on her back and he was hovered over her, supporting himself on his hands as he trailed kisses over her jaw and down to her shoulders.

She squirmed and reached her hand up under his t-shirt, running a hand over the surprisingly toned muscles on his stomach before Severus grabbed both her wrists and pinned them against the bed.

If Jade wanted to she could have wriggled free but he saw the flush rising over her body and the way her breathing hitched and knew that she was just simply more turned on.

Severus kissed at her pulse point on her jaw and muttered “I’ll put a silencing charm up, don’t want them to hear you scream the place down”

She visibly shuddered a little and arched her body towards him, desperate for more contact.

Jade let out a squeak of surprise as Severus made good on his promise, moving to the bedside table and muttering a silencing spell that contained all the noise in the room, so Claire and Jacob wouldn’t hear anything.

He threw the wand back down and sat back on his heels, peeling back her pyjama shorts and black and white pattered underwear.

Jade groaned as he kissed up the inside of her leg and then his mouth was on her and quickly she was seeing stars, hands twisting in his black hair to keep his mouth and hands where they were, able to feel the smug smirk against her skin.

He knew exactly what to do and what got her off and within minutes Jade felt her muscles clench and relax, every synapse firing like fireworks through her brain before he sat up, looking incredibly smug still.

“Good thing I did put that silencing charm up, I think the whole of Wales might have heard that”

Jade was breathing heavily still, eyes bright “Fuck off”

He just leant down and kissed her heavily, one hand pushing her t-shirt up, the other fumbling with his own jeans, quickly undoing the zip and pushing the denim down along with the boxer briefs in one swift move.

 

Jade had been unashamedly loud, thanking everything she could think of that her two friends in the next room couldn’t hear them. God, magic was helpful sometimes.

Jade was exhausted, splayed out under the sheet, still naked and breathing heavily, watching Severus as he found his boxers in the mess of their clothes on the floor, pulling them on and sitting on the edge of the bed.

“Do you want kids?”

Jade just stared at him for several seconds, looking baffled “uh, is this the time to ask this? What have you been putting in my contraceptive potion?”

She was joking but still had a very wary look in her eyes as Severus sat up a bit “no it’s just something Jacob said, and seeing Claire massively pregnant made me think”

“Well, I can’t, do if you want them you’ll have to find someone else”

“It’s not that you can’t, it’s just unlikely, that doesn’t remove the possibility altogether does it”

“I don’t… I don’t know. I’ve not put down roots anywhere, I’ve just been bumbling through life through my 20’s”

Severus didn’t really think arresting some of the worst wizards in their history and getting the order of Merlin before you turned 30 was ‘bumbling through life’ but kept quiet so she carried on.

“When James told me Lilly was pregnant I thought they were stupid, getting knocked up whilst there is a dark wizard off killing everyone, but I guess I’ve been living the last ten years as if You Know Who is still alive, not much changed, I’ve been in and out of countries and courts all over the place, I barely spent any time to myself to figure out what I wanted, I guess it’s too late now”

“I don’t think 30 is quite ‘over the hill’ Jade”

“Well, do you want children?”

He just thought for a long time before shrugging “I’ve never really imagined it would come up to be honest, I don’t know what I think about it”

Jade was far too sleepy to really register the lie in his voice.  
  
  
  
In the morning Jade had enjoyed breakfast with the four of them all sleepy around the table in the quaint little cottage, drinking tea and coffee before she had left.

There were other things she had to do, and she’d wanted to stay with Claire, Jacob and Severus, but she’d already agreed that she’d meet Remus and didn’t want to let him down.

Severus had given her a gentle kiss before she had apparated to her apartment in Diagon Alley, and he was going to stay in Wales for the rest of the morning and would see her back at the school.

 

Jade apparated directly into the front room of her apartment, not at all surprised that the lights were on and Remus was sat on the large sofa, looking surprisingly well, then she remembered they were pretty much in the direct middle between full moons, so he was at his healthiest point.

Remus looked up and grinned at her “you look shattered, you’re only a few weeks in”

She sat down heavily on the other sofa “Yes well some nutter petrified Filch’s cat and claimed the chamber of secrets was open, so I’d say it’s been quite a stressful few weeks to be fair”

“God that story was around when we were there. There’s never a quiet year at that school I don’t think”

“No, if its not one thing it’s another. You want a drink?”

“No I’m good. So, how’s Severus been?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well you two are closest to each other’s ages aren’t you”

“And?”

“Well have you been hanging out?”

“He’s not tried to hex me if that’s what you’re asking”

“It really wasn’t”

“Well, I know what _you lot_ thought about him”

Remus knew that ‘you lot’ was him, James, Peter and Sirius.

“I didn’t hate him”

“You didn’t stop them either”

There was a cool, cold silence for a second as he faltered, aware that she was completely right before Jade pushed herself to her feet and padded barefoot over to the window and looked down at the people outside, shopping in Diagon Alley.

“Anyway, Remus, I don’t want to talk about what happened when we were kids, that was a depressingly long time ago that we were that young. How are you? When’s the full moon, the 4th?”

“I’m fine, you don’t have to worry about me”  
  
Jade found that she did worry about Remus, always had and always would.

They were quite similar, especially at school, and she had known about his ‘condition’ for most of the time they had known each other, figuring it out around the time the Marauders had, she’d learnt to be an animagus for him, and had gone to prison to cover why she had done it.  
  
“So anyway, Jade, Snape, how’s he been?”  
  
Remus has always had his suspicions about Jade and Severus but he’d never been foolish enough to tell James, Peter or Sirius about it. He’d had no actual proof anything was going on between them, and even if it was, of all of them, Remus didn’t care who she did what with, and hadn’t really had anything against Severus.

He was sure that the Slytherin had been completely in love with Jade, and that she had been very close with him, but he’d had no definite answer as to what went on between them.

“It’s fine, we work together. I see as much of him as I do Trelawney and I don’t see you implying anything there. How about I do a deep dive into your personal life?”

Remus just laughed “There isn’t anything to tell and you know that”

Jade had always got the impression that Remus was quite probably in love with Sirius. Maybe he wasn’t even sure of it himself, or maybe he’d told Padfoot, she didn’t really know.

For his part Sirius hadn’t exactly been picky about who he’d been sleeping with, except that there had been a constant stream of men and women in and out of his room at one point. James had once said “Sirius will fuck _anything_ , he just needs consent and a pulse”

Sirius had been a code breaker, filthy rich from an inheritance, and painfully good looking, so he’d not exactly struggled for attention.

Jade had seen the way Remus had looked at their friend, though in the last ten years no time had ever really felt quite right to ask if anything had happened between him and Sirius.

Both Jade and Remus left their questions unanswered, and Jade headed back to the castle in the afternoon.

 

  
She’d found Harry sat on his own by a tree on the grounds as she headed back up from the gates and waved as she got nearer, seeing him brighten up.

“What are you doing out here?”

“It’s a nice day”

There were lots of other students spending their weekend in the sun out on the grass but she’d never really seen Harry on his own without Ron or Hermione.

“What’s wrong? The parsletongue thing?”

Harry just nodded sadly, cleary baffled by the whole thing.

Jade sat down on the grass, overlooking he grounds and looked up at the sky, leaning back on her hands as Harry asked “what was mum like? I have heard so much about my dad but never much about my mum”

Jade looked closely at a miniature blue pixie which was zipping around as she smiled gently “she was great, Harry. Sometimes I think you’re an exact mix of the two of them. This one time, we were in our third year and...”

They spoke for over an hour, with Harry smiling fondly at the memories of his mother he’d never had before, and Jade liked to see his face light up, no matter how painful it was for her.

 

Lilly hadn’t been her best friend, but they’d been in the same year and the same House for seven years, and she had gone on to date and marry her twin brother, so they’d been close still.

Severus and Lilly had grown massively apart in their first few years at Hogwarts and Jade always wondered if that was due to her, but then again they’d all been very different people.

It was hard for Jade to talk about Lily, especially to Harry. He was probably more like his mother than his father, and thinking about Lilly inevitably made Jade think about the Marauders, and that always made her heart hurt.

 

Jade had walked Harry back up to the Gryffindor common room, hearing a big debate about muggle music going on between lots of students, and half had looked worried at seeing Jade there, the other half hopeful that she could help them.

Seamus Finnegan grinned “Professor Greenlake! Maybe you can help!”

“Right, what’s the issue?”

The irish wizard was holding a large amount of Muggle CD’s and they were next to the wizarding gramophone and there was about twenty five other curious students around them.

Dean jabbed his friend in the side and muttered “Shut up, we’re not allowed to”

Jade just rolled her eyes, hands in the pockets of her leather jacket “I can’t imagine there’s much you’re doing with CD’s that is _that_ illegal. If it’s just breaking a school rule then I’m not going to report you to McGonnaghal. What’s the issue?”

“Can we make the muggle music play on the wizarding gramophone?”

Jade just beamed at that “Ohhhhhhh, well, there’s no rule against that as far as I know. If there is then just blame me, hand them over”

Seamus handed the CD’s over and she glanced at them with an amused look “Someone’s got good taste”

She muttered a spell and the CD’s duplicated into records that she placed on the side, handing him back the CD’s.

“That should work, but just blame me if it’s an issue!”

“Thanks Professor!”  


 

Jade had managed to avoid answering any more ‘lightly rule breaking’ questions from the Weasley twins and headed back to her own rooms, still exhausted.

She really didn’t think it was a good idea to try and cram so much in to one weekend, and her time with Remus and Harry had been quite draining.

Jade glanced around the now unpacked bedroom, and opened the bedroom door to look at the letter from Moody.

She saw the slightly messy handwriting ‘Jade Greenlake, Hogwarts’ and sighed, running her hand over the envelope before thinking deeply.

She muttered a charm that meant no one but she could open it when she finally felt able to, and closed the drawer firmly and remembering with a sad laugh the time James had used the blood charm on an envelope to his advantage, opening her letter from the ministry confirming her job offer as an auror whilst she had been out of the common room.

There were some advantages to being a twin, and the charm hadn’t been too picky, and James had always been one to find a loophole if there was one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Love, Kudos and comments always appreciated ... x


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Broken arms and Azkaban

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The flashbacks were meant to be done in two different chapters but I didn't think it would match up. Enjoy x

Jade had felt better after a few weeks of teaching, looking forward to the first quidditch match of the year, especially as it was Gryffindor vs Slytherin and Severus was looking more and more smug about the state of his House team, though she suspected the fact they all had new brooms was helping a little.

Regardless, everyone was dressed in coats and scarves on a cold day at the start of autumn, but at least the skies were clear.

Jade had decided not to wear a Gryffindor scarf, not wanting to alienate any of her Slytherin students who all knew she had been in the House at school, but wasn’t trying to support them _too_ obviously now.

She was wearing a black bobble hat and sat next to Severus, who looked a little nervous as the game started.

Watching Harry soar through the air was making Jade feel better, as it could have so easily been James up there, and she felt a gentle smile tug at her lips and she paid very little attention to the actual game.

It wasn’t too long in to the game however that one of the bludgers seemed fixed on Harry, repeatedly hitting him and not going for other players like it should usually.

Severus glanced at her, voice quiet “what the fuck is going on?”

“No clue, looks like it’s locked on harry”

“I shouldn’t complain because this will probably help Slytherin, but still”

Jade was about to turn and ask McGonnaghal who was sat behind her what was going on, but then a loud cheer came up from the crowd and she turned back, seeing her nephew darting through the air, clearly going for the snitch.

Her heart was in her mouth as he inched closer and closer and then Lee Jordan’s voice came out through the speakers “He’s got the snitch! Potter has the Snitch! It’s a **win for Gryffindor!** ”

Jade cheered but saw that Harry had rolled off the broom and was holding his arm, clearly in pain and it looked broken.

The students were celebrating and Jade flashed a grin at Severus who didn’t give her one back, a sour look on his face, and he didn’t follow her out down to the grounds.

She stopped halfway down the stairs to walk with Hermione and Ron who were going down to see Harry as well, so by the time Jade got to the grass pitch there was already some teachers and lots of students out there around Harry, including Lockhart.  
  
Jade was coming over and when she saw the bones disappear from Harry’s arm she muttered under her breath, though not quietly enough and lots of the surrounding students heard her “fucking idiot”.

Fred and George laughed loudly and Jade touched the limp arm gently.

“You’ll have to go to the Hospital wing, Poppy can grow these back, unfortunately it’s beyond what we can do with a spell. I’ll walk you up to the castle”

 

 

She helped him up to the castle and to the Hospital Wing, casting a gentle pain relief spell on him.

The Hospital Wing as otherwise empty and Poppy had gone off to get the skele-grow ready, sitting Harry on one of the beds and Jade sat in the seat beside him,

“It’s painful harry, I’ll be honest with you. When we were in our third year your dad did it to my hand, removing the bones, thought it would be funny” she rolled her eyes at the memory but carried on “it wasn’t funny at all, but the skele-grow will work And you’ll be fine by the morning”

He looked calmer and settled back against the pillows. From somewhere in the castle a bell tolled that it was 2pm and Jade glanced at her watch in surprise.

“Right, I have to leave in about an hour but I’ll stay with you till then okay?”

“Where are you going?”

“Azkaban”

Harry looked shocked and she managed a hollow laugh “I’m not being locked up again don’t worry”

“Why are you going back there though?”

Hermione and Ron were coming down the hospital wing to Harry’s bed and Jade glanced at them before continuing “someone I caught has been sent there and I am going to see that they’re... not getting out any time soon”

“Were they the one who put you in Hospital last year?”

Jade just nodded, looking distantly out the window “Yes, but he’s there and I’m here so I guess I won this one”  
  


  
McLeish had been found guilty at a trail whilst he was on the run around five years ago, so once Jade had been conscious enough they’d been able to add the charge of the attack he’d done on her, then he’d been sent away very quickly.  
Jade had been sent a notice by a friend that he’d been taken to Azkaban officially about a week before, and she didn’t really know how she felt.

McLeish had killed one of her best friends, which in turn had led to her falling out with Moody, and the four of them had been left at two, and they weren’t even really talking to each other.  
  
Azkaban has been far, far worse than Jade could have ever imagined. She hadn’t been there for any serious crimes like some of the others so the dementors hadn’t been too bad to her, but the overwhelming sense of fear and desperation that it had given her had been overwhelming.

The sense of loneliness, self hatred and sadness it had instilled still cling to Jade all these years later, bubbling below the surface.

She’d come out and gone straight back to work, then over the next four years she’d lost Frank, Alice, Fabian, Gideon, Peter, lolly and James. She’d lost huge amounts of colleagues, fallen out with Moody, been tortured, lost contact with Harry, Sirius had gone to prison, and she’d made an unbreakable vow to keep a promise about where a locket had been hidden by a friends brother, though she still didn’t understand the significance and wouldn’t for years.

Jade had been seriously changed by her time in Azkaban, and her experiences after would have been too much for any normal person to go through without it leaving a mark on their psyche. Jade didn’t know if she’d gotten through it because of her time in Azkaban -maybe she was so damaged that it couldn’t even hurt her anymore- or despite it.

She’d had a breakdown the first Halloween after James and Lilly had been killed, on the first anniversary of their deaths.

Moody had a good idea of what had happened, Kingsley had more or less told her that he knew, but only Severus, Jacob and Claire has any idea what had really happened, though they’d all adopted a ‘let’s not talk about it’ policy since then.  


 

Jade had apparated as close as possible to Azkaban, and there was a boat and a guard waiting for her on the dark beach, knowing that she had been coming.  
  
Jade felt sick before she’d even reached the island, the feeling of dread like a cold hand was grabbing at her heart, her breathing tight like a band was squeezing around her chest.

She’d had enough panic attacks in her life to know one was simmering and tried to keep it buried, face impassive.

The boatman sighed heavily, looking at her “it’s okay to feel sick, most people are vomiting all over the place”

“I’ve been here before”

“Yeah I know. Silly business that. As if there weren’t more important things for an auror to be doing in the war than being here for some silly underage magic”

He shook his head in clear annoyance with the ministry policy and Jade felt her sense of panic lifting a tiny bit, but not enough to relax as the imposing building loomed up through the mist.

The place was there to torture those inside, and it wasn’t that she disagreed with the methods or the sentences of those in there, it was more the fact her own experiences were being dredged up again that made her feel queasy.

Those that had experienced horrible, painful things were more susceptible to the dementors anyway, and Jade had not only seen some horrendous things, but she’d also spent several months in the dingy prison herself.

When Jade had been imprisoned in Azkaban she hadn’t been brought in by aurors, and as far as she was aware she was the only one. Everyone else had been captured and brought over, she’d been brought by people from the Misuse of Magic Department, and they wouldn’t have had any help if they’d asked the Auror’s anyway, as they had been less than happy to see one of their own prosecuted for something quite trivial.  
  
It was strange being back, she’d not had her wand whilst in the prison, but now at least she was able to defend herself, both against the Dementors and the prisoners if necessary. It wouldn’t take much to incapacitate McLeish if needed, considering he’d been without a wand and she’d have hers, but if it came to it, Jade always had Auror’s Privilege.

Once qualified, members of the department were given special dispensation for the unforgivable curses without legal ramifications, and it was called Auror’s Privilege, as if any of them felt ‘ _privileged’_ to use Avada Kadavera on someone.  
  
  


Daniel McLeish was in a cell at the end of a long corridor, and Jade was flanked by two guards who followed her, and she tried to keep the sick feeling down as she passed by what had been her cell for those three months.

She moved too quickly for anyone in their cells to really see and say anything to Jade, and she knew that their corridor didn’t include where Sirius was being kept, and guessed that they had done that on purpose, aware of the connection between them.  
  
Daniel McLeish had always been impeccably turned out back in the day, three piece suits, expensive robes and all of the finest things in life.

Here he was now, a shell of the man he had been. His hair was growing out and shaggy, black clothes loose and shabby, face thin, pale and gaunt, eyes hollow and haunted. All that and he had only been there a few weeks.

Jade let herself in to the cell, glancing around at the cold, damp stone walls and the impossibly thin mattress on the heavy, metal bed, with McLeish sat on the edge of it.

She motioned to the guards to leave and they were left on their own, Jade leaning against the cold metal bars.

“Alright Daniel? You look like shit”

“Fuck you”

“No, really, you’ve fallen quite far haven’t you. I remember when you were rich and powerful and quite hot actually. Now you’re going to die in this place, alone”

He had a flicker of anger “Bringing back memories is it? Being back here? You must hate it”

“Oh no, I’m quite happy to be here, you see, I get to stand up and walk out, go home and sleep in my big old bed with the comfy duvet and have a house elf make me breakfast in bed. You get to stay here in your dingy little cell, no friends, no letters, no family to visit, no one to care if you lose your voice from screaming so hard when the dementors try and break you in. I hope you lose your mind, I hope it unravels and you end up like one of those shaking idiots who once thought they could rule the world”

“You came all the way here to tell me that did you?”

“Yes, actually, definitely worth the trip. I’ll sleep well knowing you’re falling apart”

Jade turned to leave as Daniel McLeish called after her “Yeah, doesn’t matter what you do, it won’t bring your friend back, it seems everyone around you dies”

She didn’t bother with a response, though they both knew he had hit a nerve as she left the cell, remembering sadly the first time she had seen Gideon and Fabian, so many years before, way before McLeish had made his mark.

 

 

_Jade was in her final year at Hogwarts, a prefect badge gleaming from the chest on her black and red school jumper. Her hair was in a long, neat side plait over her right shoulder, a black ribbon at the end, and she was trying to read a chapter from a book as she walked down towards lunch, students streaming down the stairs beside her. “Oi, Potter, McGonnaghal wants to see you”_

_She didn’t react, assuming someone was calling after James and felt someone tug at her sleeve and saw it was Frank Longbottom “sorry, it’s Greenlake now isn’t it? McGonnaghal wants to see you in her office right now”_

_“But I haven’t had lunch-“_

_“Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m sure you can stop by the kitchens afterwards”_

_“Okay. Thanks, I’ll see you later”_

_He smiled and continued down to the great hall as she turned and walked back up to the Transfiguration corridor where Mcgonnaghal’s office was. She knocked and heard a “come in” before walking in._

_She stopped suddenly when she saw who was in the room. Her head of house was sat behind her desk, which was fine, and standing next to her was a tall, lanky man with red hair and freckles, and unmistakable auror robes over jeans and a black shirt._

_She didn’t realise that she had stopped dead in the doorway and muttered ‘shit’ until she heard a laugh from the other side of the room and glanced quickly over at a mirror image of the auror by the desk, but this one had slightly lighter jeans and his shirt was a charcoal grey, leaning against one of the windows with a grin on his face, arms crossed. It wasn’t hard to work out they were twins and McGonnaghal smiled gently “Jade, this is Gideon and Fabian Prewett, they are arurors”_

_Jade swallowed, “am I in trouble?”_

_The one McGonnaghal has identified as Fabian cocked his head to one side with amusement “no, but have you done something that the aurors should know about?”_

_“No” jade decided this wasn’t the time to mention her status as an unregistered animagus and continued “I am confused why two aurors are here on a Thursday morning and I’ve been called to speak to you all though?”_

_“I understand that you go by Greenlake now, not potter?”_ _  
She didn’t reply and Gideon continued “right, well, we wanted to know what you were planning on doing once you graduated Hogwarts?”_

_“I don’t know” she lied_

_“Uhuh. Well, I assume it’s not news to you that there’s a war on-“_

_“-I had heard” her voice was dripping in sarcasm_

_“-and the auror department doesn’t need the usual cocksure, arrogant types who try and join. We need brains, intellect, agility, and strong magical ability”_

_“You’ve lost me”_

_“You’re an excellent chaser I hear, you are an Outstanding graded student in Potions, Herbology and Defence Against the Dark Arts, you were one of the first in your year to cast a formed patronus, you have an excellent understanding of Ancient Runes, and you have competed for the school in Duelling, and won against a Durmstrang student three years older than you. We don’t have the time to whittle through the hundreds of applicants we get each year. We want to offer you a place in the department, straight after graduation, the pay is pretty good”_

_Fabian joined in “and you get a pretty awesome set of robes, and you l get to work with me, which is a pretty sweet deal”_

_McGonnaghal and Moody shot the redhead identical expressions but he just laughed._

_\---_

_Of course she’d got in, passing the gruelling tests whilst studying for her final exams and gaining her place before the last one was even finished. She had been working with Moody, Gideon and Fabian for a number of months before it had all blown up in her face after a trip to the Misuse of Magic department to discuss the Animagus Registration had led to more trouble than she had been expecting._

_Jade had asked the twins and Moody to have a talk in one of the meeting rooms, closing the door and casting a silencing charm around the entire room as the three men sat down around the table whilst she stood, moving around restlessly._

_Jade looked pale and swallowed “I need to, ah, I need to tell you something”_

_Fabian looked puzzled “Right, spit it out then”_

_“I, um, I think I’m going to Azkaban”_

_That shut them all up pretty quickly. Two sets of identical green eyes and moody’s mismatched eyes all looked at her intently, the room silent until Moody asked “what did you do?”_

_“Underage magic”_

_Gideon frowned “You’re of age now”_

_“No, I, you know it was, umm, it was when I was underage”_

_“The ministry don’t send people to Azkaban for underage magic they did years ago”_

_She spoke so fast that they could barely catch the words “I’m an unregistered animagus, I tried to register when I came of age but they can tell I started years ago and I’m going to be prosecuted”_

_The three men all looked at each other in surprise before Gideon asked “how old were you when you did it?”_

_“Fifteen”_

_Moody rubbed his face “Merlin’s beard. Jade, why didn’t you tell us?”_

_“How did you manage it at 15?!”_

_“Fabian this really isn’t the time. Personally I don’t think underage transformation should be punishable but mine and the twins can only help you so far”._

_Moody scratched his chin and thought before looking at the shocked twins._

_“You think we have enough sway?”_

_Gideon stood up and pulled on his black and red auror robes “bloody hope so. Jade, come with me. Tillerson will listen to me more than these two idiots. We’re going to get ahead of this, okay?”_

_“I don’t... you don’t have to help me”_

_Moody looked annoyed “were a team girl, we help each other. Now shut up and follow him down to the fifth floor”_

-  


_Gideon glanced at the suddenly meek looking girl beside him who was trailing him down the corridor “you know when me and Fabian saw you in McGonnaghal’s office, to ask you to join the department- that’s what you thought we had found out wasn’t it? Most people would just be confused seeing aurors there, you looked like you’d been caught. Then when you asked if you were in trouble, I thought it was an odd question for a star pupil with a pretty much clear detention record”_

_“Yes. Thought you were there to arrest me”_

_“Bigger issues frankly. Not even really sure why the ministry care so much. Unfortunately you’re the only underage witch or wizard to manage it for several hundred years, so they probably want to make an example out of you”_

_Jade just nodded and Gideon slowed right down, glancing around to see that there was no one else in ear shot of them and spoke to her impossibly quietly “I know you can’t have done this on your own, alright, I’m not an idiot. If you haven’t told them who helped you by now I can make a wild guess as to who it was”_

_“I don’t know what you’re talking about”_

_“J- I’m a twin as well, alright, you’d do anything to protect them, I know how it is. I won’t say anything, its really not my place, but I’ll assume if your brother did then so did Black, Pettigrew and Lupin. You should at least warn them”_

_Obviously Gideon didn’t know that Remus wasn’t an animagus because of his condition as a warewolf but she looked panicked enough by the rest of his words to let him know that he was correct at least._

\----

_Gideon had sway but not enough, and Jade had just sat there as the older redhead had spoken to seemingly endless people to sort the mess out._

_Jade was supposed to go away for several years, and he had argued her usefulness to the department and it looked like the maximum would be three months. Jade had been told that if she gave up who had helped her or why, then she might be able to get off the hook, but Jade hadn’t said a word._

_After hours and hours, Gideon and the Misuse of Magic department had sent her home, telling her this would continue in the morning._

_Jade had taken Gideon’s advice and had gone to James and Lilly’s house._

_They had brought the house straight out of school, and Jade suspected they would be married within the next few years._  
  
James had answered the door with a big smile “Alright Bug, What do you want?”

_“I hate it when you call me that”_

_“You never used to mind it”_

_“I have always hated it James, can we be serious for one minute of your life?”_

_Lilly had made herself scarce once she’d seen the seriousness in Jade’s face and had gone upstairs for a bath, leaving the twins alone in the kitchen._

_Jade was practically wringing her hands, looking nauseous and heavily conflicted._

_James eyed his sister warily and sat down at the table, opening two beer bottles and pushing one towards her._

_“What’s happened?”_

_“I fucked up James, I’m in trouble, a lot of trouble”_

_“Welcome to my world”_

_“No, I don’t mean the trouble like in school, I mean trouble that might send me to Azkaban”_

_James paused mid sip, eyes widening as he slowly put the bottle down._

_“Right. What’s happened? Is it work because you’re covered by Auror’s privilege so-“_

_“No, it’s not that. Being an animagus is helpful for the job so I tried to register-“_ _  
James groaned, eyes rolling to the ceiling but he let her continue “-they know I’ve not just learned. They’re pissed. They want to know how and why I learned underage”_

_“I see”_

_James just looked lost for words and Jade looked out the window “I won’t tell them how or why, so they’re sending me away, probably three months they reckon”_

_“You can’t go to prison for this”_

_“I can and I will. If it protects Remus’ secret then, yeah, I guess I’ve got to go”_

_“Bug, this isn’t right. You had help, you had me, Sirius and Peter, you can’t go down for this, it’s just underage magic, not like you tried to kill anyone”_

_“They’re making an example out of me”_

_“Can’t Moody or the twins help, or Scrimgeour?”_

_“The entire department has tried but the law is the law, and I’ll be going away probably in the next few weeks”_

_“But your work is too important?”_

_“Yeah I tried that defence already”_

_“Well two them about me, say I made you help me”_

_“No. Absolutely not”_

_“Bug, come on, this isn’t right”_

_“You’ve looked after me my whole life, I’m not repaying you by putting you in trouble as well. We did this to protect Remus and I’m not going to get anyone else in trouble for what I did”_ __  
  
  
  
Jade had been lost in her thoughts as she had made her way back down towards the entrance to the prison, heading out to leave before a guard had run up to find her, calling to stop her

“Um, miss?”

She turned and saw the guard looking wary of how he had addressed her but then glad she hadn’t said anything about it.

“There’s been an incident at the school, apparently a student was petrified? They said they want you back as soon as possible”

Jade didn’t try and hide her shock and nodded “Shit, I’ll go now”

“Uh, miss, there’s something else”

“What is it?”

“The prisoners aware aware you’re here, and there’s a prisoner who wants to talk to you”

“Who is it?”

“Black. Sirius Black”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> She's got an unbreakable vow with who over what now? Hmm?
> 
> Don't even know if anyone is still reading this but comments and kudos is always appreciated!


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I've always thought we need a backstory on how Kingsley dresses so well.....  
> And Malfoy says Mudblood again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know legillimens and occlumens aren't quite the same thing, but I'm just using the term to cover both to save energy!

Jade ran a hand through her hair to smooth it a little and realised the hand was slightly shaking, taking a heavy breath to calm herself before heading down to where she’d been told Sirius Black’s cell was.

 

Sirius let out a heavy breath as someone entered the cell, his eyes wide in surprise.

He hadn’t seen Jade in person since days before James and Lilly had been killed, afterwards he’d been going after Peter and had then been arrested shortly after.

There hadn’t been much of a trial, and Jade hadn’t come. She had been in St Mungo’s at the time, barely hanging on after Bellatrix Lestrange’s torture, though she wouldn’t have come even if she’d been well enough.

Mad Eye Moody had spoken at the trial, practically shaking with anger, and he had made it clear to Sirius, shouting at the younger man that if Jade died it was on his hands and not Bellatrix’s.

Moody had been convinced that the heartbreak of losing her brother and the betrayal by a good friend had caused her to both give up and become reckless, and had made it very clear that he would be killing Sirius _himself_ if Jade died from her injuries.

He had seen pictures of her over the years in the Daily Prophet, but seeing her in person was completely different. Her hair was long again, more wavy than curly with the weight of the length, and whilst she looked good, it had clearly been 10 years since he had seen her.

There was dark under her eyes, and as the early 20’s had been replaced with the early 30’s, there was now a slight wrinkle line between her manicured eyebrows, the skin a little less tight around her eyes, and they weren’t quite as bright as they had been, a clear sadness and harness behind them.

For her part, Jade wasn’t really surprised at how Sirius looked, she’d seen enough prisoners in or after Azkaban to prepare herself. Most of the tattoos were there before the arrest, and he had always been quite lanky and thin, his hair had grown out a bit and there was more stubble than she remembered but he looked surprisingly well, considering.

He was sat on the end of his bed, and Jade stood in the middle of the room, keeping her distance, arms crossed and palpable anger and stiffness coming off her demeanour.

 

“Jade…”

He clearly hadn’t expected her to actually come, looking surprised.

“What do you want Sirius? I’m busy, I didn’t come here for you”

“You look… you look well”

She just narrowed her eyes “The clock is ticking Padfoot, what the hell did you want to say to me?”

Jade hadn’t meant to use his nickname but tried to show no emotion from it, distinctly aware of the wand in her coat pocket as she watched the man who had once been one of closest friends, and the one person that James had trusted above everyone, even Jade.

“I needed to see you, I- Jade- I don’t even know what say… I missed you. I’ve had no way to contact you, I can’t send or receive letters and I only get the Prophet once a week. I don’t even know if Moony is alive. I didn’t betray Lilly and your brother, you need to know that, you _must_ know that. It was Peter, we swapped at the last minute and he gave their location up. He killed the muggles and then-”

“Sirius stop. Stop with this, stop with the lies, honest I am too tired for this. Yes, Remus is still alive. Look, I have read the paperwork over and over and over, and I agree with your arrest. I don’t believe your version of events. People are dead because of you. It hurts to see you in here, but my twin brother is dead, and that is on you. You were supposed to be the _good_ one from the Black family, but you and your cousin are both in here together aren’t you”

“I’m not like her, I’m not like the rest of them”

Jade just scoffed at that “No you’re not are you, you’re not even half the man your brother was”

“He was a death eater”

Jade just laughed at that, still believing that Sirius had betrayed James and Lilly “maybe he wasn’t as bad as you think, which is ironic because we all thought you were the good one and Regulus was the bad one. Yet here we are, James, Lilly and Peter are dead”

“ ** _It wasn’t me_** , and you didn’t even know my brother”

“Actually I did, but this conversation is over, I have to go”

She turned to leave but Sirius grabbed at her sleeve, looking desperate, a pleading tone to his voice.

“Please, Jade, you know legillimens don’t you?”  
Most senior Auror’s could do legillimens to some degree but Jade wasn’t especially proficient, able to see small amounts in other people’s minds, and quite good at blocking out other people entering her own.

Jade pulled her arm away from his hand “I can’t do that. I saw into your head just before you were transferred here, it was all over the place”

Sirius blinked in confusion. He hadn’t been aware that she had seen him, he didn’t remember and hadn’t been told.

“W-when?”

“You were injured when the Auror’s caught you. Took you to St Mungo’s under protection before you were brought here. I was in there myself and Peterson allowed me in to see you. You were ranting and raving and your head was a mess, you weren’t even aware I was in there”

“I- it was grief, please, Jade-“

She cut him off, authority practically waving off her stern expression

“you were supposed to be the _best_ of us, you were supposed to keep them safe. You left Remus to blame himself, and because of you peter and Lilly are gone, but my twin brother, the man who trusted you beyond anything else, he’s dead. All I have left of James is a cold gravestone, and memories, but even those are tainted because of you. Every fucking memory I have of my brother, you’re there too. You were closer to James than even I was, and now he’s dead. After Voldemort killed them, his followers nearly killed Alice and Frank, then they killed Fabian and Gideon, and your cousin tortured me. That’s all on you. If you hadn’t given him James and Lilly’s location, then they wouldn’t have come after me with such... anger... and my friends would be alive. So no, I won’t look into your head, I won’t look over your case, I won’t ask for parole or release or any little perks for you. You can stay in here for the rest of your life and think about the fact that your best friend is dead, and Harry was raised by people who hated him, all because of you”

Jade turned to leave but Sirius’ voice had a pleading tone to it “tell Harry I-“

She turned, eyes cold and furious, getting close to his face “I will tell Harry nothing. If I have my way, he will never have to know who you are, you’ll die in here, sad and alone”  
  
  


  
Jade had left, quickly getting back on to the boat to get back to the shore so she could apparate back to the castle as there was apparition wards on the island for obvious reasons as lots of wizards could do it even without a wand.

It was growing dark and the boatman hadn’t said anything to her this time, silently taking her back to the beach as she vomited violently over the side of the little boat.

The second her feet touched the sand, Jade apparated back to the castle gates, remembering that she had no time to process what had happened, as a student had been attacked.  
  
Jade transformed into her animagus form at the gate and stalked up the grass in a fifth of the time she could have walked it.  
It was late and the corridors were empty so she stayed in the form until she was on the third floor where the Hospital Wing was, sweeping in to the dimly lit room.

There was a small group of teachers around the petrified form of the first year student Colin Creevey, talking quietly in an attempt not to wake Harry up, who was pretending to sleep on the other side of the Wing.

Flitwick glanced at her “Are you alright? Where were you?”

“I was at Azkaban”  
Most of the teachers looked surprised at that and she mumbled an explanation

“someone I arrested... Daniel McLeish, went to make sure he wasn’t getting out”

McGonnaghal looked at her former student warily “I’ll talk to you about that later, I’m afraid a student has been attacked”

 

 

The teachers had discussed the possibility of the Chamber of Secrets actually being open for a while, though Jade had just said the Mandrake’s were coming along as quickly as possible, but her mind was clearly not in the conversation and she had made a swift exit.  
  
When Severus finally came back to his rooms, Jade was already sat on his sofa, clearly deep in thought, a half empty bottle of Scottish Whiskey on the floor at her feet beside a tumbler glass as she stared at the fireplace which was on.

“That place...”

“Bring back memories?”

She made a muted sort of grunt in response, still staring into the fire.

“He asked to speak to me”

“Daniel McLeish?”

“No, god no, I think he would have hexed me then and there if he could”

“Who...”

Severus was mentally going through the male prisoners in his head. There weren’t that many people in the prison so he quickly worked out who she was talking about. The Lestrange brothers might have wanted to speak to her -seeing as she was involved in the arrest of both of them- or maybe even Carrow or a few of the others, but there was only one man in there who would have caused this reaction from her.

He sat down on the other side of the sofa, taking off his waistcoat and undoing the top few buttons of his shirt.

“....oh... _Sirius Black_ ”

It wasn’t a question but she nodded, rubbing a hand down her exhausted face.

“I didn’t really want to but I was so curious as he asked for me”

“What did he want?”

“Wanted my help to prove his innocence”

“And do you believe him?”

Jade looked nonplussed by that question

“I had to take a single finger to Peter’s mum and tell her that her only child was dead, that was all that was left, and that his friend had done it. You know, Peter was a nice guy, but he really wasn’t smart enough to plan some sort of double crossing like that. Sirius was many things, but he was always very smart, he was a code breaker, that is complex work, and even the some of the things he got up to at school, some of them required a staggering amount of magic and planning”  
  
Severus just watched her, seeing how conflicted and confused she looked by what had happened, trying to remember if the bottle of whiskey half empty at her feet had been full or not before he had

“Why did you even speak to him? You knew it would only upset you”

“Because I still don’t understand”

“Understands what?”

“Why. I don’t get why he did it. His parents were muggle hating blood purists, but he was completely the opposite... we always thought he was the good guy and Regulus was the bad one but right at the end... they _both_ proved me wrong”

“You knew Regulus?”

Jade looked away from the fire, clearly realising she had spoken more than intended

“Uh, a bit”

“I never saw you together”

“It was during the war... I can’t talk about it”

“Official secrets?”

She shook her head, rolling her left sleeve up and holding her hand out, palm facing up before slowly running other hand over the skin there. As she muttered a spell under her breath, a gold criss-cross appeared before disappearing again.

“The unbreakable vow... with Regulus? Regulus Black?”

She just nodded “hence why I can’t tell you”

She rolled the sleeve back down and sat back on the sofa “it doesn’t really matter now does it. Sirius is in prison, and Regulus is dead, and students are being attacked in the school. If it’s not one fucking thing it’s another”

“Did you ever really speak to anyone, about what happened in Azkaban”

“Nothing happened. I was just there for three months”

“No I know, I meant that you had an incredibly traumatic period of about 6 months where enough bad stuff to last someone a lifetime happened to you, and that was only a few years after you were in that prison. You never really got over it”

“I don’t think I’ll ever ‘get over’ losing James”

Severus just leant over and kissed her hair gently “I’m not having a go, I’m just saying it’s okay to be... not okay, alright?”

She ignored his point completely “I need to see Kingsley”

“About Sirius?”

“Hmm”

“It’s nearly 2 am, don’t go now, go in the morning. You need to sleep”

 

 

 

Jade hadn’t thought to call ahead and so knocked on the door at least hoping he was in so she wouldn’t have to go to the ministry.

After a few seconds there was shuffling at the door and it wasn’t Kingsley that answered but Xavier, wearing comfy slippers, black jogging bottoms and a loose white t-shirt.

Xavier had got used to ministry colleagues of Kingsely’s just sort of appearing in and out of the house in various stages of panic or worry so it wasn’t like Jade arriving unannounced was too surprising, even if she had arrived at 5.30 am.

Having spent the last few weeks only really speaking to lots of British students, it was nice to hear her friends calm, gentle American accent.

Xavier was from Springfield, Illinois, attended Ilvermorny and only moved to England about seventeen years previously, and had been with Kingsley for the last ten years or so.

He was average height with pale, freckled skin, light blue eyes, and curly brown hair. He didn’t have the physical presence that Kingsley had, and they made a very mismatched couple on the face of it, though they worked very well as a couple.

“Come on in, long time no see”

“Is he here?”

Xavier looked around with only vague interest as they walked into the kitchen “no he went to the Ministry last night and worked all night, he’ll be back in a little while, did you want to stay for breakfast?”

“I should probably see him at the ministry-“

Xavier cut her off “you look exhausted, have a cup of tea then you can run off again, okay?”

She glanced at his clothing briefly “for someone who makes fancy robes you sure do like to dress casual at home”

He grinned and poured a mug of tea out of the teapot “ah yes, well, that’s work isn’t it, I like to make other people look fancy, then I just slob around the house. I send my husband out in robes and I put my slippers on”

Xavier made robes of the fancy, expensive variation, and that was where Jade had met him. She’d been left a substantial amount of money by her parents, and so after leaving school when she had sometimes needed robes for ministry events she’d found Xavier to make them for her.

Kingsley had always enjoyed colourful, bold robes and had become friends with Xavier after Jade’s recommendation, and that was how he always looked so well out together at work.

“I’m not going to ask how the school is going, sounds like you’ve got a lot on and you look like hell”

“Gee, thanks”

He just smirked “sometimes it’s nice to have a break from the crazy. When Kingsley comes home we don’t often discuss work, I think he needs to clear his head, and so do you”

“You’re probably right. God why can’t you be **_my_** husband?”

Xavier laughed at that “well, I’ve always said we need to find you a good man. Or a bad one”

That made her grin and she relaxed into the chair, grateful for a brief respite from the storm raging in her head as she remembered how Xavier and Kinglsey had got together in the first place, practically a decade before

 

_In the department of Mysteries, way, way down near where the prophecies were, there were rooms marked ‘love’, ‘time’, ‘death’ and some others._ _  
Very few people went in and out of any of those rooms, preferring to do their research up near others and venture down as infrequently as possible._

_Senior members of some departments were allowed down, and Jade had been down there only twice in her life, once to look at the prophecy about harry and Voldemort that sat on a shelf though she couldn’t touch it, only those named could, though she knew it was ultimately what had led to James’ death._

_It had been about 15 months after that when Jade had had a panicked patronus message from Kingsley, asking her to meet him in the ‘love’ room immediately._ _  
It was an odd request but frankly she’d had worse and so had gone down and found the room._

_It was huge with white marble walls, floor and ceiling, and a black marble fountain in the middle of the otherwise empty room, the fountain was pouring a silvery, shiny liquid out with spirals of steam coming out that Jade recognised from potions class immediately._

_Amortentia, the strongest love potion in the world._ _  
Kingsley looked like he’d been quite possibly crying so she shut the door “Uh, Kings? All good?”_

_He practically glared at her “what does that smell like to you?”_

_Jade didn’t want to get much nearer to clarify whether the faint smell of firewood was the same as the one that always clung to Severus’ robes whilst he was potions making and shrugged “I dunno why?”_

_Kingsley just threw his hands in the air “I was down here to speak to Peterson in the brain room and walked past here and just could smell- Jade I could smell it”_ _  
She just looked baffled “what did you smell? You look a wreck”_

_“Well I’m definitely gay”_

_That was news to Jade who didn’t really care but wasn’t too sure what her response was meant to be but he carried on._

_“Yup, gay. You know Xavier don’t you?”_

_“Your American friend? Yes he made me some robes”_

_“Yes, well, all I can smell is him, so as much as I want to ignore that, not too sure how to”_

_“Jeeez. Hell of a way to find out. You didn’t know?”_

_“I thought maybe I was a bit... interested in the other team but I didn’t think... you know...”_

_“In love with one of them? Well, I think you should have a word with him”_ __  
  
Within three years from that day they’d been married, so Jade always felt like she had reason to be a little bit responsible for their little bit happiness.

 

Jade hadn’t slept more than about an hour after everything that had happened at Azkaban and the School the day before, and had ventured out into the garden on the patio whilst Xavier got on with some work inside.

After a while she heard noise from inside the house and quiet voices.

“Kings, Jade’s here, something’s got to her, she’s in the garden”

Jade was chain-smoking in the garden, a blanket around her shoulders as she sat on the patio furniture, eyes red rimmed and a little bloodshot.  
  
She waved her wand and the cigarette stubs and the lingering smell on her clothing and hair disappeared as Kingsley sat down with a coffee.

“You want one?”

“No, Xavier already gave me one”

“Okay”

They sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the birds fluttering around at the end of the garden, and he just waited for her to speak, sipping on his coffee.

“I went to see McLeish, in Azkaban”

“I told you it was a bad idea, but go on. I’ll assume it all went tits up if you’re here looking like you haven’t slept all night”

“I had to see he was there, with my own eyes, after all this time”

“He did nearly kill you to be fair. How did it make you feel? Better?”

“Briefly, then I was leaving and they told me he _wanted_ to speak to me”

“From your expression I’ll guess you mean Sirius Black?”

“Yes”

“And-?”

“And **_what_**?”

“Let’s not pretend you came to see me and my husband just for a visit. You wanted to talk to me about Sirius Black, so what happened?”

“It... he is still adamant that he is innocent, but I don’t believe him, obviously”

“So you came over to my house first thing in the morning to discuss what exactly? How guilty you thought Black was? Come on Jade, spit it out”

“I want to talk about his conditions”

-

  
Sirius Black woke up on the Wednesday morning with bleary eyes and confusion as the guard dong the rounds threw a copy of the daily prophet into his cell.

“Is it Friday already?”

He was baffled as Friday was the only day he usually received a paper at all. Different prisoners were allowed different things, and he had been on one of the most restricted programmes, with no letters (not that he had anyone who would send him anything anyway) and a newspaper once a day.

The guard shook his head, glancing at a clipboard in front of him “no, it’s Wednesday, your situation has changed”

“How so?”

“Paper every day, still no letters”

“Who-who changed it?”

The guard looked closer at the paper work to read the handwriting “Auror J. C. G”  
As the guard walked away, Sirius just sat staring at the newspaper on the floor like he thought it might be cursed or something.

He’d always found the ‘C’ in her name quite amusing, as her middle name had come from a distant relative of the Black family who had been friendly with the Potter’s. She’d not quite been disowned because her pro-muggle rights stance had been kept between friends, but the Potter’s had liked the name.

 ** _Jade Cassiopeia Greenlake_**.

 

 

Later that week Jade was teaching her second year Slytherin’s when most of them were quietly talking about the Chamber of Secrets under their breaths and she heard Draco Malfoy talking to Goyle beside him, though they were in the front row so she could hear them clearly.

 “My father said it’s only mudbloods that will be attacked”

Jade slammed her hands on the table so hard that every single person whipped their heads around and stopped talking. Her eyes flashed with pure anger

“Detention, Saturday, with me Mr Malfoy”

“But-“

“I don’t care. I told you what would happen if I heard you use that language again. You were warned, and you’ve used **_that_** word again. I’ll see you in my office at 8.30 Saturday. Now, can we all get back to page 16 please”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't getting emails about kudos and comments so thought no one was reading or anything then I got a flood of them at once!  
> Very grateful for comments, suggestions, kudos and anything! :)  
> x


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uh-oh, they should be more careful if they don't want to get caught

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't the best chapter but another one is coming really soon!  
> Oh and I saw The Crimes of Grindelwald on Saturday - oh.my.god!

Jade was spending nearly all her time outside of teaching and tending to the mandrakes patrolling the school.

 

After curfew hours she did it in her animagus form and would slink around the mostly empty corridors, eyes darting around to see anything of note.

 

She was exhausted, and she had barely seen Severus or Harry outside of meal times and classes.

 

There was quite a weight on her shoulders and she was more than aware that the only reason she was at the school teaching was to try and keep Harry safe, and apparently the ‘heir of Slytherin’ was now roaming about trying to hurt or possibly kill students.

 

Jade was very much a pure blood so was unlikely to be targeted, but Harry was in danger, depending on who you asked.

 

Plenty of wizards these days believed that as long as both parents were wizards or witches, then you were pure blood, but there were also a section of Wizarding society that believed very intently that if one of the parents was muggle born then they couldn’t be considered pure blood.

 

 

 

Jade had worked herself into the ground since Colin Creevey had been petrified, and wasn’t exactly thrilled when after classes on a Wednesday, she received a message that Albus wanted to talk to her.

 

As if it wasn’t annoying enough, she also had to scale what felt like a million steps to get to his office, though he looked thrilled to see her and offered her a sherbet lemon that she begrudgingly accepted.

 

“Well, Jade, I don’t know how much you have heard, but the governors want to see that we are doing everything we can”

 

She just nodded noncommittally, gathering where this was heading as he continued.

 

“They wanted to talk to the staff and the Auror’s to cover what is going on and how we can keep the students safe. They’ve obviously requested that you can be there as well”

 

Jade just nodded and moved to stand up but Dumbledore stopped her “there’s one more thing”

She sat down again with a barely concealed eye roll.

 

“Albus I really do have to get to the mandrakes...”

 

“Since you arrived we haven’t seen much of each other, I wanted to check that you were settling in well?”

 

“Uh, yes, as well as could be expected. Harry’s still practically a stranger to me, a student has been petrified, I spent a day last week in Azkaban, Uh, what else happened? One of my students is the son of the man who nearly killed me, and I am currently barely sleeping. So it’s going  _swimmingly_ ”

 

Albus just sort of nodded knowingly, looking at her intently over the glasses, and Jade was glad that she knew how to shield her mind, not that she thought he’d try, but just in case.

 

“Severus has been providing you with the ointment for your scarring I understand?”

Jade narrowed her eyes ever so slightly “yes, why?”

 

“Just you seem less troubled by it since you came here”

 

“Right, well...”

 

“You know, you and Severus have both suffered so much, I am glad you have found a happiness”

 

“What are you trying to say Albus?”

 

He just gave another knowing smile “nothing, nothing Jade. The governors and Auror’s will be here on Sunday, I’ll let you know the time”

 

Her voice was dripping in sarcasm and she muttered “oh I can’t wait” before leaving his office, grateful she wasn’t called back again.

 

 

 

The next few days were a busy blur, and it was the Saturday that Jade woke up and remembered she had her detention with Draco Malfoy.

 

She’d intended to spend the day with Severus but couldn’t exactly bail on a detention with a student to have sex with another teacher. That was definitely not in the handbook.

 

She dressed in casual clothes and sent a note to Severus, explaining she would see him later, and headed down to the greenhouse.

 

She’d changed the detention to there so that she could actually get some of her own work done, and as she walked down over the dew covered grass, she was surprised to see a blonde figure waiting by the main greenhouse for her.

 

“Mr Malfoy, you’re on time, thank you, head on in and sit down”

He said nothing, a scowl on his face as he sat down heavily at one of the work benches and threw his bag on top of it.

 

Jade glanced with concealed amusement at the glare on the second year boy and sat down at the front of the classroom, examining the Tallis Root and the Mandrakes intently.

 

“Professor, now long do I have these detentions for?”

 

“For as long as I see fit”

 

“Oh”

 

Jade looked bored and finally with a sigh looked up at the blonde student, voice soothing.

 

“Draco, look, I warned you and you have used the offensive language again”

 

“Professor aren’t you a Pureblood?”

 

“Yes, I am, but that doesn’t mean I think you should say horrible things about those who aren’t. I understand that it is something you heard your father say, but that doesn’t make it okay to say, alright?”

He sort of half shrugged and Jade realised they had come to sort mini sort of middle ground and put her quill down “what homework have you got?”

 

“Potions, defence against the dark arts, transfiguration”

 

“What about Herbology”

 

“Did it last night”

 

“Good, very good. If you start your defence against the dark arts work then I’ll help you”

 

He looked baffled at this idea and Jade shrugged “I’d rather this was a productive time for you, to be honest. I’ve it things I’d rather be doing on a Saturday morning”

 

_Your head of house being_ _on_ _e of them_

 

Jade made sure not to smirk at the thought in her head.

 

 

 

They had been going through the homework with Jade’s help for a while when she glanced at the clock.

 

“Hours up Mr Malfoy, you’re free to go”

 

“Uh, Professor?”

 

“Yes?”

 

“My father is here for the meeting this week”

 

Jade didn’t look back up “trust me Mr Malfoy I am  _well_  aware”

 

“I was just... he won’t...”

 

She finally glanced up “if you’re asking if I’m going to tell your father about this detention then rest assure I won’t be”

 

Jade and James had been lucky to have parents who didn’t care what grades they had received as long as they tried their best, but she knew the weight of wanting to impress a parent.

 

Draco hadn’t expressly thanked her but he’d looked relieved, shoulders losing their tension and he had mumbled something that she assumed was a Thanks before hurrying out of the greenhouse.

 

Jade thought about going to see Harry, and in hindsight it was probably best that she left them to their own devices. She thought Harry, Ron and Hermione might want the weekend to themselves, and  _they_  were glad not to be disturbed whilst talking about using Pollyjuice potion.

 

 

 

She managed to eat a small amount of breakfast from the kitchens, spoke to Poppy Pomfrey about the situation with Colin Creevey -unchanged- and pottered around the castle running various errands until it was lunchtime.

 

By that point she was practically starving and made her way to the Great Hall, sitting between McGonnaghal and Flitwick as she devoured several sandwiches, chatting to them both.

 

It was on her third toasted cheese sandwich that she felt someone trying to poke into her mind and knew exactly who it was, so let down her guard and heard the unspoken thought from Severus.

 

_I’ve_ _missed you, my rooms, the_ _second_ _you_ _finish_ _eating._

Jade hadn’t ever eaten so fast and allowed Severus to leave first and followed seconds later to her own room, using the floor to get to his as the corridors were swarming with students who would see her go into his rooms. _  
_

 

The second she came through the floo in his room there was a dark clothed body pushing her against the wall and kissing her, hard.

 

Jade just moaned into the kiss and felt the frantic, desperate need from Severus as he muttered a spell to lock the door and close off the floo until it was reopened.

 

“Jade, bloody hell, I’ve missed you”

 

“Been busy”

 

He just hummed in response as a hand went into her hair and pulled gently to tip her head up towards him more, advantageous because of their height difference.

 

They were all frantic limbs and groaning as they removed their clothes and headed into the bedroom. _  
_

 

Jade leant back on the bed, cold sheets against her hot skin and he kissed across her scars then down her chest as he slid a finger inside her at an almost punishingly slow pace and muttered “I’m not happy you gave Malfoy a detention”

 

Her skin was flushed and she squirmed under his gaze “can we have this conversation about your godson when I’m not naked?”

 

“He’s not my godson, just a family friend” he muttered against her skin as he slid another finger inside her and Jade’s eyes pretty much rolled back in her head.

 

“Ah, oh my god”

 

Severus just looked pleased with himself, hair tousled in a way that she loved, lips red from the kissing and smirking at her.

 

“Sorry were you saying something?”

 

“Oh go away”

 

He removed the fingers and both hands went up to her breasts and that only made her moan louder.

“Do you  _really_  want me to leave? Or shall I show you how much I’ve missed you?”

 

 

 

 

It was a brief respite, their little bubble they spent their Saturday afternoon and night together in, before Sunday inevitably arrived. 

 

At breakfast Jade was picking at her food, sat next to Lockhart who was telling her yet another story about a troll, not that she had been interested in the last four attempts he had made to tell it to her.

She managed a rather false smile, which was more than she’d done the previous attempts.

 

The school governors were arriving by 11 and Albus had told Jade that Rufus Scrimgeour was coming with Kingsley just before.

 

She’d been surprised that they had taken the offer up themselves rather than sending a junior, or even one of the senior Auror’s, but then again the governors weren’t easy so it was probably part of the request from Albus.

 

Jade was wearing a plain, knee length dark red dress and black ankle boots and a loose black cardigan when she met Rufus outside the gates to walk him up the castle.

 

She’d been surprised not to see Kingsley with him but he’d explained that Kingsley was going to floo in directly to Dumbledore’s office as he had something to take care of at the ministry first.

 

The two of them walked up the grass in a comfortable silence towards the castle before Rufus spoke first, clearly struggling to keep the question in.

 

“Why did you do it?”

 

“Do what?”

 

“Sirius Black’s imprisonment conditions”

She looked briefly worried that she’d been caught and Scrimgeour raised a hand to calm her.

 

“I don’t care. He wasn’t your arrest but he was your family he betrayed, and you have the authority to make the change, I’m just wondering why”

 

Jade didn’t really have an answer and glanced at a few students who were messing around a little way off as the two of them kept waking.

 

“I don’t know. It was strange seeing him there, older but still... still him. He was my friend”

 

“And James was your brother”

 

Jade looked surprised at that, feeling a bit more hurt than Rufus had intended.

 

He looked apologetic and squeezed her shoulder “come on, we should get up to the rest of them for this ridiculous meeting”

 

 

 

 

Scrimgeour knew Jade didn’t want to go as she was walking unbelievably slowly, but neither did he, so he just kept jostling her along until they got to Dumbledore’s office, where by now Albus, McGonnaghal, the school governors and Kingsley were all sat.

 

Jade sat down and didn’t look over but felt Lucius Malfoy’s eyes on her but she just looked at McGonnaghal as she spoke to Rufus and Jade pretended to be listening.

 

There really wasn’t much the Auror’s could do at this point. A child had been petrified -no one seemed too worried about Mrs Norris in the grand scheme of things- and there were threats against muggle borns on a wall in the school. However, there wasn’t anything that the ministry would allow them to do, and they assure the governors that Jade and the other teachers were doing everything they could to sort it out.

 

It as a formality really, just to calm the worried parents down.

It was clear to everyone that Jade hadn’t really listened to a single thing that had been said, looking out the window and twiddling her wand around, but no one said anything, aware of the pressure she was under. 

 

At the end of the meeting Jade stood and muttered “well this has been awful” before pulling her cardigan back on as Lucius Malfoy looked at her across the table.

 

He clearly wanted to say something but closed his mouth again and nodded rather formally at everyone there before disappearing into the floo with a whoosh.

 

She felt relieved and immediately swept from the room, by now even less in the mood for the governors or the ministry to try and steal any more of her weekend away.

 

 

 

Severus was laying languidly on her sofa when Jade stormed into her rooms, slamming the door behind her.

 

He put his book down against his chest and looked at her with surprise

 

“So it went badly then I’ll assume”

 

“No it was fine I’m just sick of seeing Lucius Malfoy swanning around the place like he owns it”

 

“But the meeting was fine?”

 

“Well they’re worried but what can we do for now?”

 

She shrugged and Severus stood up, giving her a quick hug “you know you’re doing everything you can, no one expects any more”

 

He moved out of the hug but Jade held him close so he couldn’t go “yes but I just feel like I’m spreading myself too thinly, worrying about Harry, the mandrakes, my students, Colin Creevey-“

 

“Shhh, you need to calm down”

 

She smiled and felt a hand at the small of her back before he kissed her gently. 

 

 

 

Jade had wards and protections up around her office and rooms that meant a student wouldn’t just be able to barge in -not that any were frankly brave or stupid enough- but also that a teacher would have to at least knock and wait for her to let them in before entering.

 

They were fairly basic charms by auror standards, and anyone from the department would probably be able to walk right in without realising they were removing the wards.

 

Especially if they were the wizard who had taught them to her in the first place, and especially if they had also been brought in to speak to the Governors and Dumbledore.

 

Kingsley walked through the door to Jade’s office which opened as he touched it, and walked through to the door at the back of the room that led to her rooms.

 

He wasn’t even aware of the fact that he had taken the wards down as he knocked, the action causing the door to swing open.

 

It took them a second to even realise he was there, as they were stood by the sofa kissing deeply, her arms up and clasped at the back of his neck, and he had one hand on her face and the other was on her hip.

 

It was Severus who broke off, looking at Kingsley with confusion and a twinge of fear.

Kingsley’s eyes widened, going from Jade, to Severus, to Jade and then back again.

 

“Oh.  _Oh_..... ** _ohhhhhhhhh_**  well this is awkward isn’t it?”

 

He didn’t look like he found it awkward, the expression one of pure glee at how stricken the two of them looked.

 

“Kings can I have a word?”

 

He just smirked “sure you don’t want to finish up here first?”

 

Severus just pulled his teaching robes back on and Jade bit her lip “haven’t you got marking or something?”

 

He looked awkwardly between his uncomfortable girlfriend and the smirking deputy head of the Auror Department “Yes, I’ll see you at dinner”

 

As Severus moved to go to the door Kingsley spoke, stopping him in his tracks.

 

“I already knew, you know. Didn’t know you were back at it, but I knew you were in contact during the war, why do you think I agreed to your immunity?”

 

Jade looked baffled “what do you mean?”

 

“Jade you were getting your information from somewhere, I knew you had a death eater ‘on side’ so to speak. The Attack on the Ministry was only really stopped because  _someone_  gave you information beforehand that you have to us. Then a month later you asked for Severus to have immunity, so I’m not an idiot. I can put two and two together, and then I’ve seen the way he looks at you. I also know that on the night your brother died you went to his house, I had a tracker on your apparition because I thought you were going to do something regrettable or incredibly illegal. No one else knows, as far as I’m aware”

 

Severus and Jade just looked at each other and Kingsley rolled his eyes “I won’t tell anyone. Okay, everyone calm down”

 

Severus managed to mutter “thanks” in a rather half hearted way and Kingsley just grinned at them again.

 

“So, tell me how on earth you two ever ended up together. I thought James and you didn’t get on when you started? I’m surprised you ended up with his sister”

 

Severus just looked back at Jade “so am I”.

 

 

 

 

Severus has never been too sure exactly at what point he and Jade had ended up on a path that would lead them to each other, but there were two instances from their first year that always stood out to him.

 

Until that point he’d been a bit in love with Lilly if he was honest with himself, though he wasn’t sure how much of that was just because he’d been too scared to see if anyone else would love him or be his friend in case they rejected him. 

 

After being put together as potions partners by Slughorn Jade and Severus has got on well enough, but only really for the first few months or so saw each other in a few classes a week and that was it. It was during the first quidditch match of the year that they had first bonded.

 

 

_Severus was sat by himself on a Saturday morning in the library, and there were virtually no other students in the entire place, everyone else out enjoying the Hufflepuff vs Ravenclaw game, which was the first of the year._

 

_There was a slight cough that distracted him from the potions textbook and he glanced up, seeing Jade there in a black dress with a thick grey cardigan that was unbuttoned, and her hair in a slightly messy bun._

 

_“Can I sit with you?”_

 

_He looked baffled “why aren’t you at the Quidditch match?”_

 

_“Well I’m not in either of the Houses playing”_

 

_“So? Everyone else is there”_

 

_“You’re not”_

 

_He shrugged in something of a ‘I guess you’re right’ gesture._

 

_“I had homework to do”_

 

_“Me too, that’s why I’m here. I don’t want to study on my own, can I sit here?”_

 

_Severus just looked at her with confusion “whatever you want”_

_She smiled, ignoring his tone, and got out the books in her bag “Yes well, I did want to look over the potions homework with you”_

 

_“Why?”_

 

_Jade was clearly exasperated “well because you’re the best at potions in our class, and I wanted to make sure I don’t fall behind”_

 

_Severus still looked wary, wondering why she was trying to be nice to him, but took the parchment she had written on and looked over it anyway._

_There hadn’t been that many mistakes, and then they had discussed their transfiguration homework at length and Jade had explained a little about what her father was currently working on, as it was using one of the spells they had been taught, though at a much, much more complex level._

 

_Severus didn’t really understand why Jade wanted to talk to him, in a library, on a sunny day, when there was quidditch going on outside, but he enjoyed her company more than he would admit._

 

_Later that afternoon he saw_ _Lilly and she_ _grinned “Ravenclaw won!”_

 

_“Is that good or bad?”_

 

_“Well it means after the next two games it will probably be Gryffindor versus Slytherin! Won’t that be fun”_

_Severus didn’t match her excitement and sort of shrugged “I’m not really in to sport”_

 

_“No, I guess not. Where were you today? I saved a seat for you”_

 

_“I was in the library”_

 

_“That must have been quiet, I thought everyone was at the match”_

 

_“Jade was there. Jade Greenlake, we worked together on some essays”_

 

_Lilly looked surprised but was clearly happy he had made a friend ._

 

_“That’s great Sev, she’s very nice”_

 

_“Hmm”_

_-_

 

_A_ _bout a month or_ _so_ _later_ _after_ _Jade and Severus has_ _been meeting_ _regularly_ _in the library, James and Sirius had tried to corner Severus in one of the third floor corridors after dinner when no one was around, and Jade_ _w_ _as looking for her pale, lanky, Slytherin friend when she had heard a shout of “if you’re trying to sleep with my sister you can forget it!” Which she thought was a bit mental considering they were still only in their first year, but still._

_She had rounded the_ _corner_ _and seen her brother_ _and Sirius_ _with their wands out,_ _pointed_ _at Severus, who was_ _holding_ _his own._

 

_“What_ _on_ _earth is_ _happening_ _here?”_

 

_"Just teaching Snivellus a lesson or two”_

 

_“Honestly_ _Sirius you’re_ _pathetic”_

 

_James glared at his_ _twin_ _defensively “_ _Uh_ _excuse me,_ _that’s_ _my best friend right there. I as hoping_ _you_ _two could go out and then we’ll all be related!”_

_Jade scoffed, moving between the boys so that Severus was behind her_

 

_“_ _me and Black? God no. Can you leave Severus alone please”_

 

_“I_ _don’t_ _need_ _you_ _to fight my battles”_

 

_Jade was seriously wondering if all men were idiots or_ _jus_ _t the ones_ _in_ _her life._

 

_Sirius laughed “see, she_ _doesn’t_ _want you Snivellus, maybe we will end up together, eh Jade?”_

 

_Jade just glared at Sirius “I’d rather die a virgin than go near you”_

 

_The snort of laughter from behind her only let her know that Severus was less annoyed than he had been._

 

_Before her brother or Sirius could formulate a response Jade grabbed the Slytherin’s cold hand and dragged him down the corridor, waving sarcastically at Janes and Sirius “bye, we’ll see you later”_

 

_As they got around the corner she continued to drag him down several different corridors and through different rooms and behind tapestries to different hidden corridors until eventually they ended up outside in a small, quiet courtyard he’d never seen before._

_It was freezing but he cast a light warming spell over the both of them and he glanced warily at her._

 

_“Why did you do that?”_

 

_“Because James and Sirius aren’t funny, they’re just mean, and you’re my friend”_

 

_Severus’ eyebrows rose at that a little but he thought_ _f_ _or a moment before nodding_

 

_“Okay. Friends”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the comments and love - always appreciated!  
> Always like it when people say what they want to see happen as well! x


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't get me wrong, Wales is lovely, but it has rained every time we go!

Draco had obviously been under the impression that one detention was enough, but Jade had most definitely not agreed, though she hadn’t given him a ‘finish’ date. He was clearly pissed off at spending every Saturday morning in a detention for an hour, but he got so much homework done in that time that he quickly got over it each time.

One time he had asked Jade if they could meet earlier so that he could get to Slytherin Quidditch practice and Jade had been more than happy to, glad that the young boy wasn’t trying to get out of it.

She gathered that Lucius had probably told his son not to cross Jade too much, or at least not to cause too much trouble.

There was a rather uncomfortably confusing history between Jade and Lucius Malfoy, where they both owed each other a lot, but no one but the two of them knew about it.

A few people weren’t too sure why Jade had pushed for Lucius Malfoy not to be tried and not to be prosecuted after the war, but her word was good enough, and she had refused to explain. Of course, if she’d publicly said that the Death Eater had saved her life during the war, then he would probably be in danger from surviving Death Eaters, especially Daniel McLeish snd the Lestrange’s before their capture.

Draco’s detentions continued as the weather got colder, and as the term started to come to an end.

-

 

Jade had thought that everything was starting to quieten down as less students were accusing Harry of being a muggle-born hating heir of Slytherin.

That was until Harry and Hagrid had literally fallen over the petrified bodies of Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly Headless Nick.

Hagrid had made it clear that Harry had been with him when Justin and Nearly Headless Nick had been petrified, and there was no chance that he could have had anything to do with it. None of the teachers had thought for a second that a second year had done it, but it was more the students that were talking.

Well, some of them were, half seemed to think it was ridiculous, and half were looking at him warily.

None of the students were stupid enough to discuss whether they thought Harry was guilty or not in front of Jade, as everyone knew he was her nephew, and whilst she was happy to give out House Points, she was also quick to take them away and give detentions when people misbehaved.

 

-

Jade thought it was pretty clear that Percy Weasley and Penelope Clearwater were dating, though she suspected they were keeping it from his family. She didn’t really blame him much, knowing that Fred and George would just mock him for it, even though he was clearly happy.

Jade had seen them both sneaking around late at night, and hadn’t missed the way that they looked at each other in her Thursday morning classes. She’d had her own private relationship in school that she’d kept from her brother, so understood exactly what he was doing.

They were both exceptional students and their work was very impressive, so she was frankly happy for them, and thought it was hilarious none of the other Weasley’s had worked out they were together.

Jade was slightly worried about how Ginny was adapting to her first year, as the girl seemed tired and very private, not really talking to many of the other students.

Jade had spoken to Flitwick, Severus, McGonnaghal and Albus that she wanted everyone to keep an eye on the girl, to make sure that she eventually adapted, and made at least one or two friends.

-

 

Fred and George Weasley had been yelling “Make way for the heir of Slytherin” as Harry walked through crowds, clearly joking and clearly thinking it was ridiculous. Jade had seen how concerned her nephew looked on the run up to Christmas, with large parts of the school still inexplicably believing him to have somehow managed to petrify Mrs Norris and poor Colin Creevey, then Justin and inexplicably a ghost as well.

In mid December Jade caught Harry after a rain soaked Quidditch practice on a Thursday afternoon and had cast a warming spell with a charm to keep the rain off him as they walked back up to the castle.

“Look, Harry, I had intended to do Christmas at my place for you but Sprout was down and the treatment for the Mandrake’s needs to be done on Christmas Eve and probably Christmas afternoon as well. I did hope I could do it a bit earlier but as we’ve got yet another student and a _ghost_ in there, this is getting more urgent”

Harry just smiled “Ron and Hermione were going to stay so it’s okay. I would like to do Christmas at your house one time though. I’ll see you on Christmas Day though won’t I, if you’re here all day?”

She nodded “Yes, I wasn’t planning on going anywhere, there’s too much to do. Now, I’ll walk you to the common room, it’s not safe at the moment”

“Who do you think is doing this?”

Jade shook her head “I wish I knew Harry, I wish I knew”

 

 

Nearly all of the students had left for Christmas and there were very few of them and very few teachers in the school at all on Christmas Eve.

The place was decorated beautifully anyway, and Severus finished off a few potions in the afternoon and then used the floo to get to Jade’s rooms.

She was sat down by her lit and decorated Christmas tree, wearing black pyjama shorts with holly patterns all over them, and a black vest top with a Christmas pudding on it, her hair in a long side plait.

She glanced up with a smile as she saw him there and went back to her wrapping.

He saw there was a photo album type book on her coffee table with a cursive ‘Merry Christmas’ on the front.

Severus glanced down at the book and at Jade who nodded “You can have a look if you want, it’s for Harry”

He opened the red and green cover and saw a young picture of James and Jade with huge grins on their faces, waving and laughing, standing outside an enormous house.

The caption below was ‘your Dad and I the day we left for Hogwarts, outside your Grandparents House’

There was a picture on the next page of Lily with some friends in their third year, and he flicked through the pages and saw that Jade had found images of Harry’s parents with each other and friends, filling in the gaps for the boys history that he knew very little about.

When they had been younger, and the year groups had been much larger, some students had started an ‘in school’ newspaper, and she had found the odd article about James and Lily, mostly involving Slughorn’s little club, and Quidditch matches, and listing who was the prefects and then later the Head Boy and Girl.

Severus touched the pages gently before carefully closing the book and leaving it on the table to move towards where Jade was sat wrapping a present up.

“You know there are a load of spells to wrap presents?”

“I know”

“Are those Christmas pyjamas?”

She glanced up with a grin “Yes they are, bet you hate them, you’re such a Scrooge”

“What’s a Scrooge?”

“You’re the one who had a muggle parent, I thought you’d know? It’s from a Muggle story about a grumpy old sod who hates Christmas”

“Sounds _riveting_ ”

Jade tipped her head up to him with a smirk and he leant down to kiss her quickly.

“I like wrapping by hand, Mum used to do it with me every Christmas, don’t know why we bothered though as James would just tear the wrapping to shreds to get to his present”

Jade and Severus had agreed not to bother giving each other presents, as both were far too busy to think of anything, and neither were particularly material, and Jade had enough money that she didn’t really _need_ or _want_ very much either.

Severus sat down on the floor beside her with a grumble, clearly tired and unbuttoning his waistcoat

“Who’s the present for?”

“Remus, I’ll send it in the morning, he’s with cousins over Christmas, which is nice”

“The book for Harry is nice”

“Thanks, I’ve been holding on to some of the pictures for years, just for that. Right, I’m done with this, you want some treats?”

Severus frowned, shrugging out of the waistcoat “Treats?”

“I’ve got panettone, whiskey and chocolate brownies”

He smirked and kissed her again “God, I am so lucky to have you”

 

-

Jade woke up early on Christmas morning because Severus was spooning her tightly, and she felt hot under the covers with his body against her and grumbled, trying to move away from him, but the gentle snoring told her he was still fast asleep.

Jade glanced at the window and saw that it was lightly snowing and tried to turn over but Severus’ arm was quite heavily on her so gave up, managing to reach for a glass of water on the nightstand and gulped some down and put the glass back.

She hadn’t realised that the snoring had stopped until she felt the arm over her slowly move, and a hand slipped under the bottom of her Christmas pudding top and cold fingertips against her boob, cold fingertips making her squirm.

A deep, sleepy voice from behind her muttered “Morning gorgeous”

Jade groaned ever so slightly, turning around, pushing the covers down a little and straddling him. Severus had slept in only black boxers and whilst still clearly waking up, had a blissed out grin as Jade pulled off her t-shirt, and he looked up at her with pure and clear love and adoration.

He didn’t notice the scars anymore, they were just a part of her that didn’t bother him, much like she didn’t pay any attention to his dark mark anymore.

They were both pretty certain that they had found the best way to start a Christmas morning.

 

-

Christmas lunch at Hogwarts was always phenomenal, and Jade had eaten enough food that her jeans were tight over her stomach, and she felt like a beached whale, though she had kept picking at roast potatoes until she’d thought she would throw up.

After everyone had eaten Jade was in the decorated entrance outside the Great Hall, looking out the window by the large doors and seeing that it was darkening already and still snowing heavily.

“Jade?”

She turned, seeing Harry there as she shrugged on her black cloak to protect against the cold “Hi, everything okay?”

“Yes, if you’re going to the greenhouses in the snow, do you want some help?”

She smiled “No sweetie, it’s Christmas, go wreak havoc with your friends, but I do appreciate the offer”

He looked happy and Jade squeezed his shoulder, glancing around to make sure no one could hear them, though her voice lowered a little just in case “I know it’s tempting to run around in your dad’s cloak but if you’re going to do that, can you just make sure you’re safe? Me and your dad used to use it a lot but there wasn’t students being petrified around the school okay?”

“Where did Dad get the cloak from in the first place? Ron said they’re really rare?”

Jade thought for a second but couldn’t remember “I don’t know really, Dad – your grandad- said it was just handed down from each generation, just don’t do anything stupid with it, okay?”

Harry nodded, even though he was literally planning on taking Polyjuice potion and sneaking in to the Slytherin common room to interrogate Draco Malfoy.

“Oh, and Harry, your present is in your dormitory, have a good afternoon”

 

-

Jade had spent about an hour sorting out the mandrake’s and it was dark outside, the only light really coming from the low lights in the greenhouse, and the few lights that were still on at the castle, though that didn’t cast much light all the way down at the greenhouses.

Jade heard the footsteps before she could see him, and she knew who it was just by the way they walked.

Severus closed the greenhouse door behind him to keep the cold and snow out, and brushed some snowflakes off his shoulders where they had settled on his cloak on the journey down from the castle.

“It’s getting even heavier outside, honestly it is _freezing_ , shouldn’t be surprised, we are in north Scotland”

Jade laughed, wiping some soil off her hands on to her jeans “Says the guy who grew up in _Wales_ , I forgot that was _famously_ sunny weather”

He just rolled his eyes.

“How are the mandrakes?”

“Done. The little shits are some of my least favourite plants, honestly anything that screams at you that frequently, it is just a right pain”

“They’ll be ready soon?”

“Still a little wait, but I’ll give you as much warning as possible to get the potion ready. I’m done for today though”

Severus nodded and moved to close the gap between them and kissed her heavily.

Jade kissed back and he slowly walked the two of them back until Jade felt her back was against one of the workbenches, which was against her upper back and Severus had a hand on her face and another in the back of her hair and their height difference meant that she could feel the very obvious evidence of how he was feeling pressing against her lower stomach.

He barely broke the kiss to murmur “Are there any students out in the grounds?”

Jade murmured a charm and shook her head “No one in the grounds”

It wasn’t really much of a surprise, seeing as half the teachers were home for Christmas, there were very, very few students in the castle, and there was nearly two foot of snow outside and it was very late and very dark.

Jade pulled back “What if someone comes down and sees us?”

“They won’t, but if you’re that worried disillusionment charms, whatever, take your pick, you’re the Auror”

Jade wanted to tell him that he was an idiot, and that it was incredibly risky and something that would potentially ruin their secret relationship and possibly their careers. She wasn’t sure, but she didn’t think the board of Governors would be too happy to learn two teachers had been going at it in the greenhouses in the middle of a snowstorm on Christmas day.

Jade had _wanted_ to say no, but instead found herself muttering a series of spells and charms that would mean no one would come anywhere near the greenhouses, and if they did, then they would both be alerted with time to spare.

Jade practically threw her wand on the workbench behind her and Severus shrugged off her cloak and slid a surprisingly warm hand up under her t-shirt, the other one sliding down the front of her jeans and into her blue patterned underwear, making her breath catch in her throat and he smirked as he kissed under her jaw and along her neck.

“I thought you wanted me to stop?”

“Oh shut up”

Severus laughed and moved Jade to the right, to a lower workbench, and pushed her up so that she was sat on it, and they were at a more equal height, and the kissing got heavier until they were working together to shimmy Jade out of her jeans and underwear, barely breaking the kiss throughout.

Severus only pushed his trousers down a little before he slid into her and Jade wrapped her arms and legs around him tightly, face buried into his neck.

 

 

Afterwards, as they buttoned up their trousers again, Severus grinned at her, cheeks pink and flushed as he regained his breathing, running a hand through his hair so it was out of his face in the way Jade preferred.

“You know, I really can’t believe I ever gave you up, you know that?”

Jade smirked as she pulled her hair into a high ponytail again, as it had been mussed up when they had been having sex.

“Well, I _am_ pretty amazing” she said sarcastically.

“I’m being serious, I don’t understand why I gave you up for this” he motioned to the covered forearm where she knew the Dark Mark was.

“Well, you’re here now, and so am I”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, sorry about the wait between chapters, I work for the NHS and have a toddler so I've been ill back to back recently.  
> Always appreciate love and comments! x


	16. Chapter 16

Madame Pomfrey and all the mediwitches and matrons before had learnt a valuable lesson when treating the Hogwarts student body – _never ask too many questions_.

It was the easiest way to stop the students trying to heal themselves after doing stupid things. Stupid things like turning themselves into a cat after what she suspected was a Polyjuice accident.

Poppy wasn’t 100% sure and it wasn’t part of her job to report things back to the teachers – again, that was another sure fire way to get student to try and get around coming to her for help.

On December 26th, Jade had caught wind the Hermione was in there and had come to see if they were all okay. Harry and Ron were sat either side of her bed when Jade came down, anger clear on he face as she looked over the three of them, voice low and quiet.

“You could have **_killed_** yourselves”

“Professor-”

She looked to a still fur covered Hermione at that “Don’t. Don’t try and pretend that this was a hex or transfiguration either. Professor Snape said some ingredients have gone missing from the potions store room. Ingredients for **_Polyjuice potion._** Now, I won’t bother to ask because you why or how because I know you’ll only lie to me. There is someone in this school hurting students, and you are off _stealing_ expensive potions ingredients, making a highly unstable potion, one that none of you have anywhere near enough potions knowledge to do without messing it up”

At that Jade motioned to Hermione and the girl looked like she was about to cry which made her feel bad.

“You’re not the first person to mistake animal hair rather than a human hair. I’m not too surprised by the two of you, but Hermione, I’m let down”

Ron tried to defend her “She didn’t-”

“Ron, I appreciate that you are trying to defend your friend, and I mean this all due respect, but there is no way you and Harry made that potion without help from Hermione, it’s an incredibly complicated potion and neither of you would be able to do it without her”

The three of them went silent and Jade shook her head angrily, running a hand through her hair.

“Look, I won’t be telling Arthur and Molly. I _should_ , but it’s not really fair. Hermione’s parents are muggles so they won’t understand the severity of what you have done, and the Dursley’s are unfortunately still your legal guardians and won’t exactly care, so it’s hardly fair for you to be the only one in trouble”

The three of them had the good grace to at least look contrite and Jade glanced at the window to see that it was still snowing gently.

“Look, I can put two and two together as there aren’t exactly many other students here over Christmas, and one of them is someone you’ve already accused to me of being the Heir of Slytherin. I want to make one thing abundantly clear to you, this was one of the stupidest and most reckless things I have ever known students to do at this school, and I grew up with your father and his ridiculous friends”

 

Jade was furious but had left the three to themselves, heading back down to her own rooms to floo into Severus’ room.

Christmas had made him remember that first Christmas he had had at the School, refusing to come home because of his father, and pretty much everyone had gone home.

This was long before You Know Who and his followers had begun to darken the wizarding world, and the year groups were much larger, and less people were orphaned or from violently broken homes, which was generally why students stayed more frequently at later years.

That first Christmas he had felt incredibly alone, his parents hadn’t seemed that bothered he wasn’t coming back, and he knew very very of the students who had remained.

It was only a few weeks after Jade had basically told Severus they were friends after she had come across him and James and Sirius arguing in a corridor.

The castle had looked beautiful of course, but on Christmas Eve he had received a letter addressed to him in black ink, and Severus had walked around the decorated castle that morning and remembered it as if it was the day before.

 

_Severus glanced down at the handwriting on the envelope, trying to place where he recognised it from before opening it to see a letter from Jade. He was surprised and glanced over the contents, seeing that Jade had actually sent him a letter._

_There wasn’t much in it, mostly just wishing him a Merry Christmas and hoping he was having a nice time. There was no mention of classwork or homework, she just said that her Dad was nearly finished with his new invention, James had ‘accidentally’ blown up a turkey and their mother had removed both of their brooms as the twins had been chasing each other dangerously through the house._

_Severus looked over the letter a few times, the barest hint of a smile on his face._

_This was what a friendship looked like he guessed. He wasn’t too sure, not really used to them except for Lily, but he was willing to try._

 

Jade seemed distracted and pre-occupied as she sat down on Severus’ sofa, and he decided it really wasn’t the time to ask her about the missing Polyjuice ingredients from his storeroom and the fact that a student -who was best friends with her nephew- was in the Hospital Wing with what sounded suspiciously like a messed up Polyjuice potion.

He watched he for a minute as Jade looked into the fireplace, long curly hair framing her face, and pale freckled face lit up by the light from the flickering flames.

“I was just thinking about Christmas at the castle when we were students”

“Okay”

She clearly wasn’t really listening and Severus just watched her for a few seconds before Jade exhaled deeply to look at him on the other side of the room.

Jade was picking at a thread on her sleeve, distracted. “It’s Peter’s birthday, December 26th. I was going to visit Remus but I never know how he is going to be. He took everything really hard. He seems to think that he should have seen what was happening with Sirius and then maybe Peter and James would still be alive”

Severus nodded

“We were all winter babies, James and I were in March, Sirius in December, Remus in March also, and Peter in December”

“Does Black get anything different in Azkaban on his birthday?”

Jade shrugged “don’t assume so, how would I know?”

“You’re the one who went around changing his prison conditions”

Jade’s only response was a stony silence and he took the cue to move away from that decision and he moved to the armchair adjacent to the sofa she was sat on.

“You said Lupin blames himself, do you feel the same?”

“Huh?”

“Well, no one saw what was happening with Sirius Black did they? You all thought he was loyal to your brother and Lily, and no one on either side knew anything”

“Well, I should have seen something. If I am honest I think You Know Who was going to kill J and Lily somehow, whether or not he found the Secret Keeper for their house. I don’t think they would still be alive either way… but… I should have known what Sirius was doing. I saw him all the time. Any time I wanted to see James, Lily or Harry I had to go through Sirius as no one else knew the location, and after the Attack on the Ministry he was the one who healed me. St Mungo’s were overwhelmed, especially as the Auror’s and the Magical Enforcement Team had to take everyone arrested to be treated or checked before they were taken to Azkaban or wherever. We sat in his apartment for ages as he healed me and there was all these times he could easily have given me up to You Know Who and used me as leverage to get what he wanted, or to get to Harry, but he never did. I just don’t understand”

Jade was so frustrated and he let her keep speaking “The thing is he knew. He _knew_ all this time and he never said anything to anyone”

“Knew what?”

“He knew that you were the one who warned me about the Attack at the Ministry. I didn’t confirm it to him but he just guessed it, only a few hours after it happened. I’ve thought about it over and over, but if he was with the Death Eaters all that time, why didn’t he bring it up when he was at trial? And why when he was on the run after Peter’s death didn’t he hide out with Death Eaters and have them turn on you? I just don’t get it”

“You never told me that he knew”

 

_Sirius had taken Caradoc Dearborn to St Mungo’s as the poor wizard had been quite severely injured and Sirius apparating him out and directly into the hospital had unquestionably saved his life._

_The Order, Auror’s and members of the Ministry had been fighting the Death Eaters across the expansive Ministry building, so Sirius hadn’t even seen Jade since the fight had begun._

_Rufus Scrimgeour had arrived at St Mungo’s and informed everyone there that the fight was over, and numerous arrests had been made, and he had told Sirius to go back to his apartment and recover as he was clearly exhausted._

_He was sat on the sofa at his apartment and drifting off when the floo whooshed, and a rather bedraggled looking Jade stood in his front room._

_Sirius didn’t hide his surprise well and Jade realised that her robes were covered in both soot and blood._

_“It’s not my blood. Well it’s mostly not my blood” she looked closer at it “well, I don’t know how much but I’m hoping some of it isn’t mine”_

_Her voice was thick and he looked over her closely, not too sure what to do._

_“I think we should get you to St Mungo’s, you look bloody awful”_

_“No, I’m fine, and they’ve got a lot of people a lot worse to deal with today after what happened. Can you just help me?”_

_Sirius looked like he wanted to say no but let out a resigned “Yeah, of course” before drawing up a seat opposite her._

_Sirius was about to start treating the black gash on her palm but Jade stopped him “promise me you won’t tell James how bad I was?”_

_“What?”_

_“I know you two share everything but I don’t need him worried right now, okay? He’s got enough of his own problems._

_Please?”_

_“Fine, But have you got anything to relive the pain? This is going to hurt, a lot”_

_Jade hadn’t made much noise throughout but Sirius hadn’t missed the fact her fists were clenched so hard that her knuckles had turned white._

_Jade was sat on the sofa, hands clenching the edge and steadying her breathing as Sirius came back in, running a hand through his recently cut hair. It was still a bit long but only just past his ears to his jaw, and still lightly curly, and he was holding a bottle of fire-whiskey “you want one?”_

_“No, no I should get back, and you know I’m terrible at apparating after a drink”_

_“You lost a bit too much blood to do that anyway. I’ll take you side on when you’re better, I’ll make you a tea”_

_It wasn’t really a question and jade knew she would be forced to drink it regardless as Sirius waved his wand and one appeared on the table in front of her._

_“Thanks”_

_Sirius sat down heavily in the armchair opposite her, rubbing his face in exhaustion “so... you can’t carry on like this, you know that don’t you”_

_“I’m fine. I should get you a sexy nurse outfit for the next time”_

_Sirius clearly didn’t find that at all funny and glared at her “no. You don’t get to joke about this. People are dying, and Lily and Prongs are in danger, you’re being attacked left right and centre, and it’s really not funny anymore”_

_“I never said it was funny I just don’t think you need to have a go at me for doing my job”_

_“Well talking of your job, do you want to tell me who gave you the information that there was going to be a raid on the Ministry? I know it came from you, but who was it?”_

_“I’m hardly going to tell you am I”_

_“Why not?” He sounded incredulous as if he wasn’t notoriously bad at keeping things to himself._

_“Because you don’t know legillimens. If you get captured, they’ll know who gave the information and then someone’s life is in danger”_

_Sirius just looked at her for about two minutes intently and in silence before cocking his head to one side “Snape. It was Snape wasn’t it?”_

_“Excuse me?”_

_Sirius just shrugged “He was always a bit painfully in love with you wasn’t he, didn’t want you to get hurt”_

_“I wasn’t going to be in the Ministry today, that was pretty public knowledge”_

_“Yeah but if he wants to get back into your good books – or your knickers- then it’s probably some extra points if he helps the Order out isn’t it. Come on, you can just deny it if you want”_

_Jade just stood up, feeling a bit light headed with the loss of blood._

_“I need to go. You won’t say anything to James, okay?”_

_Sirius made a motion as if he was zipping his lips hands in the air as if protesting innocence/_

_“Your secret is safe with me J, all of your secrets”_

_The pair just looked at each other for a few seconds before Jade wordlessly exited through the Floo._

 

Jade had always struggled with the idea that Sirius had betrayed her brother and Lily. Anyone else in the entire world would have been better than Sirius, he had been like a second brother to her, and had at times been closer to James than she had been herself.

Jade and Sirius had leant on each other over the years, when his parents had thrown him out, it had been James he had told with a laugh, but it was Jade that had sat with him in an empty classroom as he cried a little about it.

After a while he’d wiped the tears away and said they should get some snacks from the kitchens.

Jade didn’t understand why Sirius had never gone to anyone with his assumption that Snape had betrayed the Death Eaters if he himself had been working for them.

The more Jade thought about it the more sick she felt.

 

Over the next week until the students came back from Christmas break Jade visited Remus and was glad to see that he was doing well, having seen some extended family for a few days and they were a little way off a full moon so he had looked remarkably healthy.

Jade hadn’t told him about seeing Sirius or changing the details of the imprisonment, not sure how he would take it so close to Peter’s birthday, and she didn’t want to unbalance him when he was actually doing so well.

Jade was needed at the Ministry on Severus’ birthday on the 9th for a meeting so on New Year they had decided to spend the time together.

There wasn’t anything special happening at the school for it, so both of them went to her apartment in Diagon Alley.

At midnight they were lying naked and tangled in the white silky bedsheets in Jade’s bedroom, watching the fireworks from the large windows.

Obviously they both knew it wasn’t sustainable. As nice as it was to be all curled up in her apartment like a normal couple, they both knew that it was just a nice little bubble, and that they would be returning to their normal lives the second they got back to the School.

 

 

The second years were surprised to walk in to their transfiguration lesson on the first class back of the new tem to see a very annoyed looking Jade stood there with McGonnaghal as they all sat down

“Now, we’ve been talking about transfiguration and the law for a while now, and I’ve explained that I am a registered animagus” the class nodded and she continued “Professor Greenlake has kindly agreed to tell us about her experience of the animagus system, and also, what can go wrong if the laws aren’t followed”

Jade half rolled her eyes like a stroppy teenager and all the students looked at her with a keen interest and McGonnaghal carried on “do you want to tell them?”

Jade looked like she wanted to say ‘no’ but started to speak.

“The laws about Animagi are very strict. When I was just over 18 I went to the improper use of magic board and tried to register. They were suspicious because I was already able to fully transform at 18 and a few months, so there was no chance if only just started to try. I was actually arrested and charged with improper use of magic”

The students looked half shocked half in wonder and amazement, and McGonnaghal sighed “and what is the usual term given to those found guilty of this?”

Hermione put her hand up and answered “15-30 years in Azkaban, depending on the severity”  
All the students looked with amazement at Jade, who looked incredibly annoyed by the entire conversation.

“I was only given three months in the end, because I had made the effort to try and register once I was of age, and also because I was an Auror, and this was at the height of the war, so they couldn’t really spare me...” Minerva frowned slightly, all the students looking amazed and marvelled

“Professor Greenlake, would you say that three months in Azkaban was an easy punishment?”

She paled slightly at the memory and shook her head “Merlin, no. You wouldn’t want to be there for three minutes. It was horrendous” she looked sombre and there was a shadow in her eyes at the memory

“you can’t sleep, and when you finally do it’s... well there are dementors all over the building and many people had gone mad with the experience. It’s hard to sleep when you can hear their screaming all through the night”

“Now, as one of my best transfiguration students, I wasn’t happy to hear about any of this”

“I wasn’t thrilled with going to prison either to be honest”

McGonnaghal tried to hide the hint of a smile that came out as a result of the huff in her former students voice.  
  
  
That afternoon Severus was sat in the teachers lounge doing some marking with a cup of tea when Jade came in, her cloak around her and looking annoyed. She sat down heavily on the sofa and he glanced up “what’s got you in a foul mood- the fifth years again?”

“No, McGonnaghal has made me tell all her classes about my experience in Azkaban, and for the entire day I’ve had so many questions I haven’t even been able to teach my own lessons”

Snape smirked slightly “well I’m sure most of them already knew”

“Oh it’s not that, I just know she’s punishing me” Jade called across the room “Minerva?”.

The older witch glanced up and she asked “are you making me tell the story to your classes to punish me for doing underage transfiguration whilst under your house?”. She smirked and nodded “very intuitive Miss Greenlake. I didn’t much appreciate the investigators questions”.

She went back to her conversation with Trelawney and Jade raised her hands dramatically to Snape

“see, what am I meant to do? It was a hundred years ago”

“You **_did_** break the law”

She pulled a face at him “doesn’t the moral high ground ever get tiring?”

“No not really”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and kudos are so very very appreciated x


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Date night!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I went to University in Worcester for three years, before anyone moans about it being a City, it is, but it's tiny (but lovely!).  
> Oh, and there's some sex in this one.

As the school term resumed the Mandrake’s were starting to enter their ‘teenage’ period, which was promising for those that had been petrified, and with no new attacks, the heat seemed to be off Harry at least.

Lucas Farris was a constant distraction to Jade, unable to equate the very timid teenager with his father, the man who had laughed as he’d murdered her friend.

When she’d been in Azkaban, Daniel McLeish hadn’t asked her about his son, though he must have known Jade was teaching at Hogwarts. Either he didn’t know if his son was still in the country, or he truly didn’t care.

As Jade watched Lucas blush as the blonde Ravenclaw named Sofia who was sat next to him asked him a question, she realised she’d do as much to protect the boy as she would do with Harry.

 

 

After one of her first sixth year Gryffindor classes once the term started again, Jade wasn’t paying attention as the students finished up and headed back to the castle in the rain.

“Professor?”

Jade glanced up, seeing one of her best sixth year students there, the only person left now all the other students had left.

“Percy, how can I help?”

The redhead looked a little sheepish for a second “I was wondering- you worked at the Ministry for a long time, I was wondering if I could speak to you about any pointers you could give me, I was thinking of trying to go after I graduate”

“Well, I’m glad you are thinking ahead. You’re a very good student, did you kno which department yet?”

“No, I’m still thinking”

“Well, your father is also at the Ministry, have you spoken to him?”

Percy’s eyes glanced away “No”

Jade was tapping her fingers on the work bench and pulled a slightly sour face

“Percy, I know your father has been fined about the flying car, and I know it is in the newspapers, but he is a very, very good wizard, and he is very well liked in the Ministry. Mad Eye thinks your dad is fantastic, and he hates most people to be honest. Have a think about what you want to do, and come and speak to me, then I’ll point you in the direction of some contacts okay”

Jade understood that it was embarrassing for people like Malfoy to bring up Arthur’s fine, but she felt a little hurt for Arthur that his son seemed to dismiss his position in the ministry.

It was a small department but she hadn’t been lying, Arthur was liked by most people there, and it wouldn’t be hard for Arthur to get him some work experience or help him get a job.

 

 

Harry was glad that Jade hadn’t exactly held on to the anger after working out about the Polyjuice potion, though she was still a bit irritated with him, Hermione and Ron.

She watched their first Gryffindor Quidditch practice of the new term on a Saturday afternoon, after her last detention with Draco Malfoy (though she had made it more than clear that if she ever heard he’d said Mudblood again then the detentions would be the least of his issues).

Jade had sat with Percy Weasley in the stands and watched, the red head explaining that Oliver had made so much noise getting up and ready in the morning that he thought he may as well come down and watch, especially as two of his brothers were in the team.

Jade had been reminded of Remus dutifully watching James -and when she had been on the team- and Jade practice from the stands, despite having no interest in Quidditch.

Sirius and Peter had been there too, but both of them were avid fans of the game so it was a bit less of a hassle for them.

They had spoken through the game and when the team were finished with practice and showers, before walking back up with Oliver Wood.

 

 

Harry had seen that Jade was still in the stands and came up to sit with her.

After a few minutes he stretched his arms, clicking his shoulder.

“What happened to the rest of the family?”

Jade looked baffled by the question and Harry rephrased “my parents families, I know about my Mum’s family, a bit, but dads family, what happened?”

Jade was still surprised but twirled her wand through her fingers to answer.

“Well, my parents- your grandparents- were older when they had us, they died when James and I were still in school. My dads father was an auror, he was killed when they tried to bring Grindenwald from New York to England. I don’t think dad would have been thrilled about my previous career choices because of that... Uh, well mum and dads family were both pure bloods and some of the more... shall we say enthusiastically pureblood sides of the family fell out with the more liberal sides. Mum had a twin sister, Isadora Greenlake, she was a professional quidditch player, first woman ever on the Irish team - they grew up in Ireland. She died when I was about 20 maybe, killed because she wouldn’t give over information about me, James and those working against You Know Who... dad was an only child, his parents - my grandparents who were your great grandparents- were both very high up in the ministry, but they’re long dead as well, my dads father was a twin as well actually. You’re named after your great-great uncle actually”

“So twins run in the family then?”

Jade nodded sombrely “yes, there’s been a set in each generation for a while I guess, well, I guess that’s all changed now”

Harry realised then that he was essentially the last person on his family tree, there was no one else below him, on the Potter side there was no cousins and no siblings, he was at the very bottom, and Jade was the only other living person.

“Maybe you’ll have twins”

Jade looked like she’d rather give herself the cruciatus curse “Uh, no, I don’t think we need to hold our breath for that to happen any time soon”

“Are you...?”

“No harry, I’m not dating anybody, and you’re enough of a problem at the moment without having children. Now, I’ve got so much work to do, want to head back to the castle with me?”

Harry grinned and they walked back up, glad for the first time in days it wasn’t raining.

 

 

Jade did have work to do, marking and checking on the mandrake’s mostly.

It was tedious and boring, but Severus had told her that she needed to be dressed nice that evening and they were going somewhere, so she had something to look forward to at least.

Later, Jade showered, tamed her hair into a vaguely presentable set of curls, wearing a short, dark purple dress with tights and black heeled ankle boots with a long black coat and her makeup done.

Jade went to his rooms and found Severus in dark black jeans and a charcoal grey shirt with a black jacket, his hair pushed back from his face.

“What’s going on?”

“We’re going on a date”

She blinked, clearly confused before a smile spread over her face “really? Where? Surely someone will see us?”

“Muggles won’t. Well they can see us, but they don’t know who we are. Come on, you ready to go?”

He held a hand out and Jade slipped her hand in to his before he tugged them both into the floo.

They connected quickly to his house in Spinners End though it was literally for a few seconds before he apparated then both to their location.

It was a small clearing outside of a small city she assumed, or a big town.

They were on a slightly higher vantage point so she could see the twinkling lights of the buildings and they were on a quiet, dimly lit street.

Jade just followed Severus as he jumped the gate to get out of the clearing and onto the path, helping her over.

“You cold?”

“I’m mostly just curious”

He smirked and they started to walk, hands still clasped together, passing a few little houses and a few little streetlights that didn’t do much as they headed downward, towards the lights.

“Where are we?”

“Worcester”

If Jade was surprised she didn’t show it “Are we eating? I’m starving”

“Yes we’ll eat. Merlin, I don’t know how you’re so slim with the amount you eat”

She just poked her tongue out at that and they kept walking.

 

Worcester was one of the lowest magically populated areas in England, so it made sense as a destination for them. Wizards generally liked to stay together, especially as their children were prone to blurting out things to muggles that made them sound like lunatics, James had once told a muggle ‘my mummy likes to tidy the house with her wand if the elf doesn’t do it’, and they’d had to brush it off as him having a wild imagination.

It was a chilly night but at least it wasn’t raining, and Jade assumed that there was a university in the area, considering the amount of 18-25 year olds heading into the bars they walked past.

As they sat down in the warm little Italian restaurant with a candle between them as the waiter left their menus, Jade grinned at him and shrugged her coat off.

“I’ve got to ask, how does someone like you know about this little restaurant?”

“What do you mean someone like me?”

“Well, you were raised in Wales, and you live in a school in Scotland, and you’ve got a house nowhere near here, oh and the fact that despite your Dad being a muggle, you really, really don’t live in the muggle world at all do you”

Severus just shrugged at that, not arguing with her points “Nah, you are right, Jacob has been here a few times for work, I knew there was pretty much no wizards here so he sorted a place out for me”

“Oh he is so sweet isn’t he”

“I’d guess Claire is going to have the baby any day now, surely?”

“Well she was due a week ago so any minute I think”

At that moment the waiter came over to take their drinks order and they both ordered red wine.

When the wine came over to them, Severus held her hand across the table and Jade squeezed it back, glad that for once his hands weren’t freezing cold.

There was a long moment where she looked at their clasped hands, twisting them so that his was palm up, and ran her thumb over his wrist, not far from where they both knew the Dark Mark sat on his skin.

“You know... it nearly killed me when you... our last year at school was... unfortunate”

Severus glanced down, eyes not meeting Jade’s

“Yes, I was an idiot”

“Well, I won’t argue with that”

 

_In the library a few weeks after the beginning of the final year, Severus was looking intently at a book, writing notes as if his life depended on it._

_After a few minutes he could feel eyes on him and glanced up, seeing a familiar pair of eyes, framed by dark curly that contrasted with pale freckled skin._

_She was sat with Claire, Frank Longbottom and two Ravenclaw boys Severus didn’t know, grouper at a table and obviously doing the Herbology homework._

_Everyone else at the table was discussing Venomous Tentacula versus the use of Devil’s snare and Jade clearly wasn’t listening, simply staring at Severus, though none of their group seemed to notice._

_After a few seconds of eye contact she turned to the rest of the group “I’ve just remembered I didn’t send my aunts card off and it’s her birthday tomorrow. I’ll see you later, I’ve got to get to the owlery”_

_Everyone said goodbye to her and went back to their work as she pulled the strap of her side bag over her head and quickly rolled the parchment in front of her and stuffed it in the bag before sweeping out of the library._

_Severus left a minute or two later._

_The owlery was often empty, most people just used the morning delivery owls to send off their own letters. That and the fact it was a long walk up to the highest point in the castle._

_It was a large stone room with alcoves for the numerous owls that lived there, a desk in the corner presumably for last minute letters, and there was several large windows, showing just how far up the room was._

_Jade just stared out of the window for a few minutes until she heard footsteps and glanced around, seeing Severus coming in, closing the door and looking at her warily._

_“You understood then”_

_“Well you were staring at me and then said you were coming here so I can put two and two together, yes”_

_There was an edge to the silence as they stared at each other across the stone room, and they may as well have been a hundred miles apart for the distance it seemed between them._

_Jade broke the silence first “you... you’re going to join him aren’t you?”_

_“I don’t know”_

_“You’re better than that Sev”_

_He let out a derisive snort at that “not all of us are destined to save the world Jade”_

_“I just... you always cared about what was right, what was **fair** , that’s why I don’t get why you didn’t report James and Sirius more often... you were always better than anything he will ever do. Severus people are dying, and I know that he’s not going to stop until everyone is dead. Can you live with that?”_

_He said nothing, just staring back at her and Jade felt her eyes getting hot with prickly tears “Sev What happened, I thought we were good together, and all this time- all this time it was leading to this? Really? I thought we could... maybe, I thought we were good together”_

_“We were”_

_“I can’t be with you if you join Him, if you want to be a Death Eater, and I want to join the Ministry, how does that work?”_

_They had been growing apart from the end of the previous school year and through the summer holidays and he looked sad and withdrawn, swallowing and glancing away._

_“It doesn’t”_

_“So it was all for nothing then? All this time we have spent together, you never... you never cared? You never cared about me? You’re willing to give it all up, everything we had planned? It never mattered did it? You never loved me did you?”_

_The silence stretched for nearly three minutes before Severus managed a nearly silent “no” before barely managing to meet her eyes before saying “I never loved you”_

_There was no conviction in his voice and Jade knew it was a lie, but they had reached the other side now. He was trying to distance himself, and there was a line he had stepped over, making it clear he didn’t want Jade anymore, well, more that he couldn’t rather than didn’t want._

_\--_

_Jade had tried to move on, and whilst James and Sirius had had a fair idea she’d dated during their school years but kept it quiet, it was clear that she was now being less secretive._

_Sirius had tried to ask her out yet again, only to be turned down with a rather withering look._

_Elliot was a ravenclaw in their year and Jade had always got along with him quite well, and it hadn’t been a surprise that he’d asked her out._

_They had been seeing each other for a few weeks and beyond a quick kiss that was all that had happened._

_They had decided t see each other in one of the quiet courtyards after everyone had gone to bed and they had watched the stars. Jade was a prefect so could get away with being out after curfew, but Elliot would get in trouble, though it was James who was on patrol that evening as Head Boy, so it wasn’t like he was going to give either of them a detention if he had found them._

_Jade was sloping back to her common room, thankful she had the map with her, the entire castle essentially empty as it was gone midnight._

_Nothing had happened with Elliot, they’d been a bit hot and heavy but he’d only brushed a hand timidly against her side and when he’d leant in, her breasts had pushed against his chest, but he’d been awkward about the whole thing, clearly lacking experience or just intimidated._

_Either way Jade was fine to wait, she was still trying to get over a rather long, secret romance so wasn’t looking to move on that quickly._

_Jade hadn’t just broken up with a boyfriend, she’d lost one of the closest friends in her life, someone she had been willing to lie to her twin brother about, the person she’d been willing to move schools to keep safe. Also, it wasn’t as though they had simply broken up, he was being pulled towards Voldemort and the Death Eaters, a move that Jade could never ever make, and it broke her heart._

_Jade was barely paying attention as she walked around the deserted, quiet corridors until she felt a hand on her forearm, practically pushing her behind a false tapestry that covered a small tunnel that had been blocked for years, only about five metres deep but totally covered from the outside world._

_Jade gasped and then realised who it was, relaxing but still slightly on edge, the two nearly 18 year olds were stood so close that their breath was mingling, barely a few inches between them._

_His hair was getting longer again, down to about his jaw and he looked pale and exhausted again._

_Jade in contrast was just as beautiful as ever, eyes bright, skin scattered with freckles, slender frame shown off by the black wrap dress she had on, and the fact he was taller meant that Severus could see straight down the top of the dress anyway._

_Their voices were slightly hushed, it didn’t matter that no one was meant to be out, neither were they and yet they were ignoring the rules, so it wasn’t impossible that someone else would do the same, or that a teacher and prefect would hear them._

_Jade had the map on her, so James, Sirius, Remus or Peter wouldn’t know where they were, but it wasn’t foolproof, someone still might pass them on a patrol, even if it was a quiet, rarely used corridor._

_“I lied- you don’t- I said I didnt-...”_

_He trailed off, unsure before running a hand through his hair, visibly frustrated “so Elliot eh?”_

_“What about him?”_

_“You’ve been... seeing... him?”_

_“Well, he’s interested, and I don’t want to die alone”_

_“I would have thought Sirius-“_

_“I’m not letting him near me with a ten foot barge pole”_

_He just nodded at that, seeming a bit grateful that she wasn’t off with Sirius at least._

_“Sev, you can’t stop who I date”_

_“So you are dating him?”_

_“Elliot? It’s not serious”_

_“So you haven’t...”_

_“Not yet, but if and when I want to sleep with him, or anyone else, I certainly won’t be asking for your permission. **You** left **me** , remember that?”_

_His voice was even quieter “yes, I do. I’m not trying to stop you, you can do what you want”_

_“And yet here we are, talking in a hidden corridor in hushed tones about what I’ve done with some boy from Ravenclaw. It’s pathetic because I’ve offered to come clean to James and Sirius about us 100 times and it’s always you who said no. I’ll go and tell him now if you want, I don’t care what he’ll say, I don’t care what everyone else will say. We can just be together. You don’t realise I gave up a lot to be with you, I’ve lied to James repeatedly, lied to Sirius, hid it from my friends, and I’m happy to go and tell everyone right now, but you won’t give up the Death Eaters and You Know Who will you”_

_Severus seemed to realise what she meant, Jade had given up a lot over the last few years but things were different, he would be 18 in a few weeks, and she would do the same a few months later, and of course neither knew that the ministry had already decided to approach her for the job that would shape her adult life._

_This was it then, this would be goodbye._

_He didn’t think before moving._

_Severus kissed her first, and was grateful to feel her kiss back. It was furious and almost angry, their hands roaming over each other’s body and her smaller frame was backed against the cold wall as his hand slipped roughly under the fabric of her dress and inside the matching black bra._

_He considered turning her around but this was way too intense and personal to not have complete eye contact, so instead a cold hand slipped down Jade’s left leg until it was behind her knee and hoisted the leg up, the right one staying straight._

_There was some quick fumbling with his zip before his boxers and Jeans were pushed down and he was inside her._

_Jade groaned, head rolling back and hitting slightly against the stone wall. Her hands were practically clawing at Severus’ shoulders and he was going almost painfully fast, aware that this was likely to be the last time._

_Afterwards, Jade pulled her underwear back on and smoothed her dress and hair down._

_Severus had zipped his trousers back up and they just looked at each other, the distance between them immense, despite what had just happened._

_There was a silence and a quick, barely there kiss before they went their separate ways._

_\--_

_Jade had the map so saw that James was coming back from his Prefect rounds and waited in the common room for him._

_The common room was empty when he came back in, seeing his twin sister sat cross-legged by the fireplace, looking at it pensively._

_James knew something was wrong and tried to get an answer out of his sister, sitting down beside her, long legs sprawled over the carpet._

_“Is it Elliot? Did he do something?”_

_“Huh?”_

_“Well you look upset and you saw him earlier. Do I need to go and smash his face in?”_

_“No, it’s not like that, honestly, he’s very sweet”_

_“Okay... what’s wrong?”_

_“I don’t... I don’t want to talk about it”_

_James wanted to ask more questions but he knew Jade wasn’t exactly in the mood._

_“Well, it’s Saturday tomorrow”_

_“Yes, well done James”_

_“It’s a Hogsmead weekend smart arse. How about we go just the two of us for the day? We don’t really get any time just the two of us do we, What with Sirius and Lily and everyone else. It’s a shame we’re not smaller and can’t fit under the cloak together, could have swiped some firewhiskey from the pub... anyway, I need to get a load of stuff for Christmas in Hogsmead so if you’re not too busy, want to come with me for the day? Help me choose presents?”_

_“I’d love that”_

_James looked appeased now his sister was clearly happier and leant over, kissing her hair on the top of her head and squeezing her shoulder._

_“Perfect. Now come on Bug, we should probably get to bed”_

 

 

Jade had thin pepperoni pizza and Severus had a lasagne, both sharing a few glasses of red wine. They walked back to the clearing afterwards, and decided to apparate back to Jade’s apartment in Diagon Alley.

They were both a bit tipsy and Jade was feeling younger and happier than she had in a long time, pulling at Severus’ jacket and kissing him deeply.

“Thank you”

“It was only dinner”

She laughed, head tilted up to meet his darker eyes “I meant this, tonight, it was great, honestly. I as just remembering out last year at Hogwarts and I can’t believe we’ve gone from that to this. You taking me out on a proper date to a muggle restaurant has just made my day, honestly”

He kissed her gently “Any time”

Jade was clearly wanting more contact and in the dimly lit living room she kissed him with long and languid kisses as she deftly undid the belt on his jeans and slid the leather out of the denim loops before dropping it on the wooden floor with a clang.

She moved to undo his trousers, but Severus moved her hand away and his right hand pushed the hem of her dress up before snaking it into her tights and underwear.

Jade let out a noise between pleading and a groan as his fingers kept moving as he kissed along her jaw and neck and Jade eventually groaned, shaking and pleading.

“Sev, please, Merlin, please”

He just laughed into the crook of her neck “Tell me what you want”

“I want you, I want you now”

Severus didn’t need to be told twice, lifting the much smaller and lighter woman off her feet so that her legs were wrapped around his middle, his erection grinding into her even through the layers of denim as he moved quickly to her bedroom, practically throwing her on the bed as she giggled.

Jade was sprawled on the bed, curly hair splayed over the bedspread, cheeks flushed, breathing heavy, and still dressed and shoes still on, a huge grin over her face.

Severus took a moment to look at her there and swallowed “I love you, Jade”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments are always appreciated you lovely people! x


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had the worlds worst ear infection so this has taken me sooooo long to write.  
> This was meant to be a long chapter with the end of the second year, but I'm so exhausted that I've published this one and I'll get the other one up before Christmas!

It was the following morning that Jade and Severus got word that their godchild had been born.

Jacob had again written with a biro on parchment which made Severus roll his eyes but he scanned the letter quickly.

Claire had gone into labour the night before and they had gone to St Mungo’s after a few hours.

They hadn’t wanted to be seen together in St Mungo’s so waited until the couple were back at home later in the day.

They had used the floo together, clearly at very different levels of excitement.

Jade had pretty much squealed with excitement and given the tiny little baby a cuddle before handing him back to Claire.

Their friend looked quite good for having had a baby only that morning, though quite tired. They had called the boy Thomas and he was chubby and sleepy, dressed in a little blue and white sleepsuit.

Claire had seen Severus looking a little wary, and had waited until he was sat on the sofa to literally just hand him Thomas with no warning, so he couldn’t make an excuse not to hold the baby.

Severus clearly had no clue how to hold a baby, looking at the little boy like he thought it was about to grow an extra head, or that it might break if he so much as moved a muscle.

Jade, Jacob and Claire had watched with amusement, as Thomas just snuggled into Severus’ chest and fell asleep again.

His voice was barely above a whisper “What the hell am I meant to do?”

For a man who had managed to face down You Know Who, looked him in the face and managed to lie to him, get away with it and be the spy for Jade and Dumbledore and lived to tell the tale, Severus Snape was terrified of babies.

 

  
  
By the time it got to mid February, the school was still thankful to have had no further attacks, and Jade was thrilled to report that the Mandrake’s were definitely well into their teenage period, being sulky in the day and staying up late and making the end greenhouse shake every night with raucous parties.

Valentine’s Day was not exactly something that Jade had ever celebrated, let alone Severus.

They had both been exhausted the night before so had slept separately in their own bedrooms, both collapsing asleep after finishing their marking.

Jade woke up on February 14th bleary eyed, mascara she had forgotten to remove smeared on her cheek, and her hair was a mess as she had slept fully dressed and face down.

An owl tapping at the window to her bedroom was what had woken her and Jade managed to roll out of the bed and open the window, taking the post and giving the owl a treat before it flew off again.

Jade glanced at the letters and cards, seeing a few with handwriting she recognised.

She was barely 30, very attractive, stupidly rich, member of the Ministry, from an incredibly well known and well regarded family, and as far as the outside world knew, she was single. That meant that every year she received several cards, notes and presents on Valentine’s Day.

She didn’t mind, it was slightly flattering, frankly, and she would usually read over them before binning them.

She recognised the handwriting on the outside of one card as that of Ludo Bagman and had half a mind to forward it on to his wife to see what she would say about it, but decided not to get involved.

Jade wasn’t exactly proud of the fact she had slept with Ludo once, but it had been a long, long time ago, and they had both been very drunk. She had been in her early 20’s and he had been in his mid 40’s, and married, though Jade hadn’t found that out until a few weeks later.

She didn’t open the card, just binning it straight away, the rest were either anonymous or also ones to chuck in the bin as well.

As she finished, Jade saw the small little jar on the desk that she hadn’t noticed before, that had clearly been left the night before. She knew what it was filled with, the thick potion that Severus had created and tailored to stop the pain in the scarring over her chest and shoulder, the only potion in the hundreds she had tried that had actually worked against the dark magic Bellatrix had cast there.

There was a small folded note attached and Jade unfolded it to see a familiar handwriting there in neat, black ink:

_I saw you were running out, and you are too proud to ask for more. Have a nice day, and I’ll see you later. S   x_

That made her smile and Jade looked at it for a few more seconds before carefully folding it back up to put the note in a drawer to keep.

 

Jade was always unsure how Muggles got ready in the morning in time for anything, she used magic and was still usually running in last for breakfast in the Great Hall every morning. She’d managed to remove the smeared makeup, apply a new layer, shower, sort her hair and get down in time to slip in the spare seat between Flitwick and Trelawney, piling a plate full of marmite covered toast just before the flurry of Valentine’s cards from within the castle arrived, and the students were instantly doubly as loud, a flutter of excitement about who had sent the cards to who.

Jade glanced up as a card appeared at her plate and she muttered a spell that made it explode into a ball of flame and then the ash disappeared.

Flitwick leant over, voice quiet “I think that was Lockhart’s writing”

She just smirked “it was, that’s why I got rid of it”  
  
  
Valentines day had been a difficult day for teaching, lots of very hormonally charged students discussing their love lives (or lack thereof) and all of the teachers had struggled, and even Jade had been forced to yell at two classes to focus, and they had been so startled the had gone completely silent, wide eyed and surprised.

 

Harry didn’t want to tell Jade about the diary he had found. There was no way that the senior Auror was going to let him keep a diary that wrote back to him, she would definitely take it off him and have it investigated, especially after what it had shown him about Hagrid when he was younger.  
  
He was right, of course, though Jade and any other teacher would have known who ‘T Riddle’ was, and the diary would have been destroyed.

Instead, he kept the diary between himself, Ron and Hermione, including what Harry had seen about Hagrid and the creature.

 

 

Jade had been working late in the greenhouses after dark when she had seen Dumbledore and two figures walking from the castle down towards Hagrid’s hut, and recognised one of the figured from a mile off, the long white blonde hair a dead giveaway, even in the darkness.

She felt a wave of anger at Lucius trying to meddle, yet again, in things that didn’t really concern him, though that did seem to be all he did these days.

Jade wiped the soil off her hands before picking up her wand and heading down to Hagrid’s cabin, where she had seen the men heading towards.

Jade didn’t bother knocking on the cabin door, just walking in, seeing Hagrid, Lucius, Fudge and Dumbledore standing there in the middle of what appeared to be an argument.

Fudge was clearly wary of Jade, and from under the invisibility cloak, Harry was fascinated to see the anger in her eyes, and the effect it had on the older wizard.

“Ah, Cornelius, I didn’t see you arrive, you must have been sneaking in, hoping I wouldn’t know you were here”

She smiled as if it was a joke, but her eyes were dark and threatening, and Fudge didn’t exactly look thrilled at Jade’s presence in the little house.

Lucius Malfoy and Jade practically glared at each other over the middle of the room as Fudge, Hagrid and Dumbledore spoke.

Jade said nothing through the debate as Malfoy joined in, and her eyes slid slowly over to where Harry and Ron were hidden under the invisibility cloak.

Her eyes met both of theirs, and Jade turned a little, kneeling quickly and pretending to sort her laces out, her back to the men in the room and she put a finger to her lips as she stared at the boys under the cloak, telling them to be quiet before she turned back to the conversation.

It was only after Fudge and Lucius had essentially removed Hagrid and Dumbledore from their positions in the school that Jade let her actual anger show, arms crossed and voice dripping pure anger “I never knew you were a coward, Cornelius”

Fudge was lost for words and Jade motioned to Fang “I’ll stay here, I’ll look after the dog”

Jade had been radiating so much anger that once everyone had left, she had walked the two second years up the castle, both of them under the invisibility cloak and she had barely managed to say more than “I don’t even want to ask what you two were doing out this late, and frankly I am certain that your answer will piss me off”.

She had walked them up to the Gryffindor tower, seeing them inside before turning on her heel and stalking back down to speak to Severus, though they hadn’t exactly seen eye to eye on Lucius Malfoy’s conduct.

 

Severus and Jade had argued about Lucius for well over an hour, and both of them knew that there was no point even bothering any more. Lucius was an old friend of Severus’, and despite the fact that he had essentially led him down the path of becoming a Death Eater, he had also been a good friend to him.

Jade thought that Lucius Malfoy was a meddling idiot, who hated her, and who she had once arrested, so they were never going to agree, but they had simply not spoken for a few days.

Jade wanted to make up with Severus, and was sat in her office after lessons, wondering if the black lingerie or the dark red would work better for the ‘make up’ session.

She was half heartedly marking some of her fourth year students essays when she heard a knock at her office door and glanced up.

Hermione Granger was there, looking a tad reluctant as Jade fixed her with a pointed look.

“Everything okay Hermione? You can come in, I’m just marking”

She put the quill down and the young girl came in, sitting at the chair on the other side of Jade’s desk. She glanced around the room, seeing a dark green flower she had never seen before in a pot on the desk as she did.

“That’s from Argentina, it’s not in the curriculum at the moment. What can I help you with?”

“I wanted access to the restricted section, in the library”

Jade looked surprised, eyebrows rising as she sat back in the chair “I won’t give you preferential treatment because you’re friends with my nephew. You are supposed to ask the teacher who’s class it is for, and I know for a fact it isn’t Herbology you need it for”

“It isn’t for a class”

She observed the shy girl for a second before relenting “Well, tell me why and I’ll consider it”

“I want to do some research on the Heir of Slytherin, and try and work out how these students are being petrified”

Jade just looked at her for a few seconds before pulling out a clean sheet of parchment and quickly writing a note before sliding it over the table to the young girl.

It was a brief, signed note confirming she had given permission to the girl to get into the restricted section, though there was a stipulation that it was **only** Hermione, and no other students.

“If you do find anything Hermione, let a teacher know, hopefully me, but whoever you can find first, okay. Also, I know Harry has the invisibility cloak, but please don’t use it to sneak into the library after hours, not when st

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the kudos and comments you lovely people! x


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucius didn’t really want to hurt Severus, but he wanted to ruin Jade, and this was his best route.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the longest chapter ever!  
> Let's be honest, if you've got a secret, Lucius Malfoy is not someone you want to know about it.

The Ravenclaw Vs Gryffindor Quidditch match was on a relatively warm autumn day, and Jade found herself sat in the teachers box wearing a black dress with white dots that went to just above her knees, bare legs, a black jacket, black ankle boots and her hair half up with a pair of aviator style sunglasses as she glanced over the students who were crowding into the stands.

It looked like pretty much all of the students were coming down, as the stands were packed, and there was still about 15 minutes before the game was due to start and both teams were in their changing rooms still.

The Quidditch match was going to start soon but Jade felt a prickle up the back of her neck and took her wand out from her pocket. It was part of the job, she just _knew_ something was wrong, and judging by what had been happening in the last few months at the school, it seemed more likely to be up at the school than down at the stadium.

“Something isn’t right”

Flitwick, who was sat beside her, frowned “What do you mean?”

“I can just tell, something’s wrong”

He looked baffled and she muttered “if anyone asks I’ll be back soon, okay?”

“You shouldn’t be in the school by yourself, it’s not safe”

Jade just pulled a face at her former teacher, waving her wand through her fingers “I’ll be fine, and I’m pureblood so there’s that as well. I’ll try and be back in time to see Harry, okay”

The smaller man nodded and moved aside as Jade slipped out of the teachers box, heading quickly down the spiralling staircase and out the back of the stadium, running across the grass back towards the castle.  


 

Jade felt it, she just _knew_ to head up to the higher floor and was drawn down one of the

The two girls were ones that she unfortunately instantly recognised, Penelope Clearwater and Hermione Granger.

Jade felt her training take over and the panic immediately ebbed away as she cast a messaging patronus, sending it to McGonnaghal who was the only teacher she knew was still in the building, as she hadn’t yet been down at the stadium.

McGonnaghal would be there in a matter of minutes, and Jade quickly checked they were petrified and not dead, before heading down the corridor after whatever had caused it.

There was a horrible silence in the castle that settled in the pit of Jade’s stomach as she moved through the stone corridors, eyes flickering around to try and get an idea of what -or who- had caused them to be petrified.

Jade felt the energy, anger and magic bubbling just below the surface, her right hand practically tingling as it held on to the wand.

There was nearly total silence in the castle, and it was far, far too silent. She knew that pretty much everyone was down at the stadium, but there was obviously the fear that there might be more students who hadn’t gone down, and that meant more people in danger.

Jade was a pureblood and more than able to protect herself, but it was the unknown element that had her on edge as she crept around a corner, not making a sound.

There was nothing down the corridor, and Jade listened intently, hearing a heavy, sliding noise down the following corridor. She sprinted down the corridor but by the time she rounded it, the stone corridor was empty.

Jade listened for a few more seconds but there was nothing and she hurried back to the two petrified girls, and McGonnaghal had just arrived.

“Jade, I- how did you find them?”

“I just knew something was wrong and ran up here. I nearly fell over them… I was trying to see if anything or anyone was down there but they were already gone by the time…”

Minerva squeezed her shoulder gently to bring Jade back down to earth “I’ll go and stop the match, we need to get the students back to their rooms. Can you take the two girls to the Hospital Wing, please?”

“I, uh… yes, okay”

 

Jade didn’t know how much later McGonnaghal, Harry, Ron and the rest of the teachers came up to the Hospital Wing, and she had just been sat on the edge of an unused bed, staring at the row of petrified figures on the beds by the windows, clearly lost in her own thoughts.

She barely even noticed Ron and her nephew were there with the rest of the teachers, her eyes only flickered up from the petrified figures to glance at Severus quickly, but he said nothing, knowing that this wasn’t the time.

Jade was chewing on her bottom lip so hard that she thought it might bleed.

“I told her- well, I gave her permission for the restricted section in the library, this is my fault”

Madame Pince shook her head “no, actually she wasn’t in there today. She’s been in a few times, but not constantly, and not today actually”

“What was she looking at?”

“I don’t know, there’s about 25 books in the area she was sat in. I wasn’t keeping an eye on which she was reading at the time”

Lockhart drew himself up with a clear sense of self importance “I think I should patrol the corridors with-”

“I think you should shut up”

Lockhart looked wounded and the other teachers tried not to laugh at Jade’s uncharacteristic outburst and she ran a hand over her face, distractedly.

“We need to take the students between their classes, it’s the only way to keep them safe… and have a curfew… they’ll hate us for it but it’s the safest option considering….” She trailed off and they all looked at the occupied beds again.

 

 

The students took the curfew and the fact they had to be escorted between lessons, clubs, the great hall and their common rooms surprisingly well, probably because it was that or be found petrified in a corridor.

Jade was arguably the most annoyed, even though it was her idea, her students were all down in the greenhouses, which meant she had to walk over the muddy grass with students repeatedly every day, but it was worth it for them to be kept safe.

She had managed to have a quick word with Percy Weasley a few hours after Hermione and Penelope Clearwater had been found, the prefect looking close to tears throughout. Jade got the gist that the rest of the Weasley’s didn’t know that Percy and Penelope were dating, and she wasn’t about to be the one to tell them. Percy hadn’t denied their relationship, just asked her not to tell his brothers or Ginny, and she’d made it very clear she wouldn’t, and promised to get the mandrakes ready as fast as possible.

 

She was surprised the Governors hadn’t decided to get involved again, but they were probably still stinging from removing two members of staff, and then the attacks had continued, so they were laying low she gathered.

It was about three weeks after the two girls had been attacked before Jade and Severus really found any time to be together again.

Jade was essentially acting as a head of house still, and Severus was looking after Slytherin, and both had to escort all the students around the castle and every waking moment seemed to be ushering teenagers around the castle.

 

They had finally been able to sleep in the same bed for the first time in weeks, and hadn’t had the energy to have sex, just passing out in Jade’s expensive white sheets, both dreading the classes the following morning, especially as they had to get up early and escort students from their common rooms to the Great Hall for breakfast.

It was dark and the middle of the night when Jade woke up sharply, heart racing and initially unsure what had woken her.

That was until Severus reaches frantically for his wand and lit the room, and she saw the frantic look on his face, eyes wide and fearfully looking at her.

“J- What happened? What’s going on?”

Waking up, Jade realised that she was drenched in sweat and her chest was heaving as she filled in air, and the stinging pain across her shoulder and chest.

What really worried her however was the worry in Severus’ dark eyes.

“I don’t- what happened?”

“J, you were- Jade you were screaming, that’s what woke you up”  
At that she felt another blistering pain shoot across her upper body and it felt like she had been stabbed.

She was doubled over in pain, gripping the skin so tightly that there was blood pooling beneath where the nails were digging into the skin.

There was a wave of nausea that washed over her and Jade barely stopped herself from throwing up, hands shaking and she pulled off the old Ireland Quidditch T-shirt she was sleeping in like it was burning her skin and they both looked at the scarring that had been there for over a decade now.

It didn’t look any different to usual but they both knew what was happening and Severus pulled his clothes on in about five seconds and used his wand to get Jade’s light grey dressing gown to throw it around her. He tried to get Jade out of the bed but another wave of pain ripped through her body and she collapsed to the floor.

This had happened before, maybe five or six times in the years since Bellatrix had attacked her -not long before her arrest and around the fall of You Know Who- and now. Severus had seen it only one of the times, but this seemed to be much, much worse than that time.

It wasn’t a secret that the scarring was caused by dark magic, and Bellatrix had cast the curse with the intention of killing Jade, and it was only because help had arrived so fast that she had actually been saved, and the curse had been contained to her chest and shoulder, not reaching her heart and killing her.

Day to day it was sore and sometimes painful, but liveable, then every now and again  -usually when Jade was exhausted and run down-  the pain would flare up and become burningly, cripplingly painful, and she would be in Hospital for days afterwards.  
  
  
Severus was incredibly grateful that it had happened at night, so that no students could question why he was the one taking Jade to the Hospital Wing. She was slumped against him, clothes drenched in sweat and groaning with pain, feet stumbling as he practically dragged her down to the Hospital Wing.

Poppy rushed out when they arrived, pulling a dressing gown around herself and turning on a few of the lights, clearly surprised to see the herbology teacher in a dressing gown, drenched in sweat and in crippling pain, arm around the potions teacher who looked uncharacteristically scared.

“What’s going on?”

“The curse, the dark magic curse – it happens every now and again, but I didn’t think she was up for taking the floo”

Poppy nodded, helping him put Jade on to a bed and pulled the curtains around her, even though there were no conscious people in the Wing, only the petrified patients in there.

Another wave of pain washed over her and Poppy cast a silencing charm around them so that half the castle wouldn’t wake up and she pulled a potion from a drawer and quickly threw it down Jade’s throat and the pain seemed to abate a little, and after about two minutes Jade’s breathing settled down, though she was still deathly pale, looking like she would throw up.

Poppy glanced between the two teachers and there was a very slight hint of amusement in her eyes before she asked “so you were just _passing_ by her room two floors above your own at the exact moment she had this attack, is that what we’re saying?”

They both opened their mouths to tell her some sort of story but Poppy just laughed and waved a hand dismissively “no one is even going to know you were here Severus, I really don’t care enough to tell anyone what you were getting up to, or what you weren’t getting up to”

She just winked at that and glanced over Jade “We have to take you to St Mungo’s I’m afraid, I’ll sedate you and take you, Severus is right about taking you by floo, it will hurt too much. I’ll get things ready and then leave you two to….whatever you want to do”

Poppy was trying not to laugh, Jade was in too much pain to care, and Severus just glared.

 

  
Jade was heavily sedated, waking up in an unfortunately familiar room in St Mungo’s, unsure how long she had been unconscious and not able to remember even leaving the castle. She let out a shaky breath, eyes opening slightly though everything was blurry still.

There was a familiar figure sat in the chair beside her bed, a worried look on his face, both eyes intently fixed on her, both hands clasping the staff in front of him.

Her voice was so quiet it was barely audible “I still hate you”

Alastor Moody just sighed “I know, you’ve told me many times”

Moody moved to stand up but Jade’s voice made him stop “I said I hate you, I didn’t say I wanted you to leave”

He was clearly thinking but slid back down into seat, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear and fixing both eyes on her.

“Fine, just get some rest”  
  
When she woke up Jade was alone, and the clock on the wall told her she’d slept for several hours, but the fact Moody’s aftershave hung in the air told her that he had stayed there until she began to stir.

When Jade finally properly woke up she realised Dumbledore was in the room, reading a copy of the Prophet.

“Albus? What happened?”

“Your nephew and Mr Weasley found the Chamber of Secrets”

She sat up so fast that a bolt of pain shot through her shoulder “Ah Merlin that hurts. Are they okay? What happened?”

“It would seem they worked out that it was a Basilisk from what Miss Granger had in her hand when she was found. They went to find you without knowing you were here. Professor Snape informed them you were at the Hospital, and they were unwilling to tell Severus, so the next teacher they found was rather unfortunately Professor Lockhart. Both of them are fine, unfortunately Lockhart is a bit worse for wear, but the students are fine”

Before he had finished the sentence Jade had swung her legs out of the bed, incredibly grateful that she was in a hospital gown. She was barely able to stand and held on to the edge of the bed

“I need you to apparate me back to the school Albus, **_now_** ”

“You’re not well enough, you’ve only been here three days”

Jade glared at him “I’m going to change, and then you’ll apparate me back, or else I’ll take myself and probably splinch myself in the process so that’s your option”

Dumbledore considered for a moment before closing the newspaper “Very well, I’ll wait outside whilst you change, but I don’t think this is a good idea”

“I don’t tend to do what is best for me, you should know that by now”

  
  
Jade looked a mess, that much was clear. She had slept for days but it looked like she had been awake for a week, pale with dark circles under her eyes, and every muscle clearly hurt when she walked, practically limping through the castle.

She had intended to go and find Harry and Ron when they had arrived at the school but Albus had swiftly left her, and she gathered that there was a meeting or something he had to get to.

Jade had made her way very, very slowly up the steps, intending to head towards the Hospital Wing but realised that she didn’t even know if Harry or Ron were there. She hadn’t exactly been given many details about what happened.

When she had eventually managed to hobble into the Hospital Wing, Jade saw Ron sat there awkwardly with Lockhart, who was babbling to himself, and Ginny Weasley sleeping in the other bed beside them.

“Ron, what happened? Where’s Harry?”

The redhead looked briefly worried about Jade’s condition but gave her a quick overview of what had happened, having the good grace to at least look sheepish under her wary gaze.

“We’ll talk about this later, I don’t know if I’m more proud or angry at this point. Where did the diary even come from initially, and where’s Harry?”

“He’s gone up to Dumbledore’s office, Malfoy’s dad was here, Harry said it was him that put the diary in Ginny’s cauldron back in the summer”

Jade swore under her breath “How long ago did Lucius get here?”

“Dunno, like fifteen minutes ago? With his Elf, his house elf is Dobby, it was his House Elf that was trying to warn Harry. He looked furious”

“Yeah, I’ll bet he was”

Jade turned and managed to get her sore, protesting body up the stairs up to Dumbledore’s office, wishing that it was up a lot less steps as her muscles screamed and she had to grit her teeth to even get down the corridors let alone up steps. She had considered transforming into her animagus form but wasn’t too sure she’d even be able to do it without causing herself some serious injury.

 

In the end Jade didn’t even have to make it all the way to Dumbledore’s office, as Lucius Malfoy came barrelling past her when she reached the corridor before.

“Out of my way Greenlake”

She stopped, shouting after him, clearly furious “you could have killed a student!”

He turned, checking they were alone in the corridor

“You can never pin anything on me, don’t just throw allegation around Greenlake”

“I know you did, and so do you. Your house elf was trying to warn Harry all this time. You can’t even keep a house elf loyal Lucius”

“And what proof do you have? The allegations of a child? You owe me Greenlake, and they are going to take me off the Governor’s board, so you are going to pull your weight and get me kept on it”

“Uh, no. We’re even Lucius. You told me where _she_ was, I got you your immunity”

“Actually we’re not”

“How do you figure that one?”

“Well, I saved you twice”

“Again, what are you talking about?”

Lucius looked a mix between gleeful and surprised, obviously thinking she had know.

“Ah, so you really didn’t know. Well, I’ll enjoy this then. You never knew who led them to that house did you? The one that saved you from Bellatrix’s curse?”

It wasn’t really a question and he pulled out his wand and quietly muttered the spell that made a patronus burst from the end. It was only for a few seconds but a white, silvery peacock flew around them, flitting between them and then disappearing.

Jade just looked like she’d been slapped and Lucius grinned.

“So yes, you do owe me”

“Well, I wouldn’t be so proud of screwing over your wife’s sister _twice_ ”

“I don’t care about your opinion”

“Lucius, I’m sorry but I don’t have any sway with the governors, I tried but they’d already made their decision”

He just glared at the younger woman “you’ll regret this”

“I’m sure you’ll make sure I do”

Lucius muttered something that sounded like “Stupid bitch” before he turned and swept off down the corridor and disappeared from view.

 

Jade didn’t know what to say, pushing Lucius from her mind and finding Harry, who was talking to a rather excitable looking House Elf who was waving a sock in the air, and she had hugged her nephew so tightly it had actually hurt.

 

That afternoon the mandrakes were finally ready, and Jade had asked the heads of houses to ask for any student volunteers who wanted to help with the mandrakes to come down on the following morning about 10 to help her out. It wasn’t going to count to any grades so she’d only expected to see a few turn up.

She gathered Percy Weasley, Lucas Farris, Neville, Ron and Harry would help her, but other than that had planned to spend about six hours on preparing the plants.

Instead 34 students turned up from all different year groups and houses, and Jade had felt so happy she’d finally realised that the entire teaching year had been worth it.

There had been some quite good natured arguing between members of various Houses about the Quidditch scores that year, and she’d ignored the fact that Oliver Wood, Cedric Diggory and two final year students had been levitating clumps of soil at each other’s heads.

They all thought it was hilarious and had just immediately retaliated with the same thing back so she left them to it.

Everyone in the school knew that Jade had been in Hospital, and it was very, very clear from the way everyone was getting on with helping with the mandrakes whilst she watched sort of half slumped on the front desk.

No matter how crap she felt physically, Jade felt content, completely unaware of what was coming her way in the Daily Prophet that week.  
  


  
Lucius didn’t really want to hurt Severus, but he wanted to **_ruin_** Jade, and this was his best route.

He felt bad about what it might do to Severus, but then no one would be embarrassed about being with Jade, especially given her position. Obviously Severus would know that the story had come from him, but they’d make up, they usually did.

Lucius has saved Jade to save Severus, if he really had to pinpoint why he’d done it. He had no loyalty to Bellatrix, even if she was the sister of his wife, she’d gone too far, even before she’d tortured the Longbottom’s he had been trying to find a way to bring it all to an end.  
His family were free of The Dark Lord, and he wasn’t about to have her keep dragging them down too.

He hadn’t known for sure that Jade and Severus were together, but when they had been Death Eaters he had once seen the younger man look terrified when he had thought that an injured auror was Jade, turning the woman over and seeing that it was someone else and looking visibly relieved.

He knew that they had been friends at school and it wasn’t too hard to put two and two together.

He didn’t know for sure that they had been in a relationship, just that Severus had been horrendously in love with the freckled brunette, but the implication was enough for the wizarding press, they didn’t care much for proof or facts.

After leaving Albus’ office and his altercation with Jade, Lucius had gone down to find Severus, asking if he could retrieve some documents from the younger mans house that he’d asked Severus to sign with him.

It was the adapted will to include the Malfoy’s enormous French Chateaux, and they needed someone to sign it as a witness, and Severus had done it but it was still at his house, not Hogwarts.

Severus had just shrugged, telling him to collect it if he wanted.

Obviously, what Snape didn’t know was that Snape had gone to Spinners end purely and simply to look for any pictures or notes or letters to confirm that they had ever been together.

Anonymous notes were often sent to the Daily Prophet, but the reporter who opened the brown envelope attached to the grey owl that day knew she had the scoop of her career.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the flurry of kudos recently, very much appreciated and so are comments! If I don't post before then Merry Christmas everyone!
> 
> Next chapter- the Daily Prophet story breaks, and all hell breaks loose


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The world finds out about Severus and Jade

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am still getting over a horrible bout of the flu so apologies if it isn't proofread very well! x

Jade hadn’t really known anything was wrong, as the Prophet had clearly realised that if they had spoken to Severus or Jade before actually publishing the article then they were likely to have a lot of push back and might not have been able to run with the story.

It wasn’t that two Hogwarts teachers had been in a relationship in their teens, that wasn’t an interesting story, it was that a highly commended Auror had once dated someone who had been pardoned for their part as a Death Eater -for reasons that were never made public- and it was known that only Senior Aurors were able to give evidence to the committee, not juniors.

Jade had already been a Senior Auror by the end of the war, and even though it was mostly Dumbledore that had got Severus off any charges, the inference was clear.

The Daily Prophet wanted to make out that Jade – famous poster girl for the Ministry- had abused her position in the chaos after the war to get her ex boyfriend off and save him from Azkaban.

Of course what people didn’t know was that Severus had in fact protected many, many people by risking his own life to warn Jade about the attack on the ministry, and that he had then been a spy for the Order.

 

Jade hadn’t been aware that there was an issue until Severus had managed to catch her after lunch when she was about to head back down to the afternoon classes. The hall was nearly empty of students and he waited until there was no teachers sat around her before moving over and speaking quietly.

“That reporter, from the Prophet, she knows”

“About what? Who are we even talking about, Skeeter?”

“No the other one. Wilkerson. She knows about us at school”

“How?”

“I don’t know”

Jade just stared at him for a second “ _Lucius_ ”

“He wouldn’t”

That made her laugh at least “are you stupid? Of course he would, the last time I saw him we had an argument, and he frankly hates me. Of course he would. You told him then?”

“No”

“So he found some evidence then. He’s been at your house recently I gather? Found some letters or something?”

Severus looked sheepish and Jade threw her hands up in a giving up gesture “what the hell Sev? You realise what they’ll try and do? They’ll say that I used the relationship to get you your immunity”

“But you didn’t”

“It’s the Daily Prophet Sev, they don’t care about the truth it’s just the story they want”

Jade thought for a second, glancing at the last few students as they left the hall “Ho do you know? Did they ask you for a quote?”

“No, they were at the Ministry today and Martha heard Mad Eye Moody screaming at a terrified looking reporter and asked him what happened. Turns out they were asking him about whether you were the one who gave me immunity and he told her to warn you. She couldn’t get through to you as you were in lessons but could tell me”

Jade just exhaled, looking at her empty plate, unsure of what to say or do, aware that she couldn’t stop the article coming out, just grateful that Martha was kind enough to run out and warn them.

 

The following morning, Jade initially wasn’t sure whether the students had heard, as she knew that the Prophet would run the story as soon as they could, but by the end of breakfast there was a very obvious buzz of muttered gossip spreading around the room, and she had a pretty good idea that she was at least half of the conversation, and there were lots of glances up towards where she and Severus were sat at opposite ends on the teachers table.

The reporter had gone to the ministry for a quote from Kingsley, Moody or Scrimgeour about how this information might _suggest_ that Severus had got immunity because of Jade and his prior relationship.

Rufus Scrimgeour had issued a statement - refusing to see the reporter- that Jade had actually not been the one to bring immunity forward as an option (which was technically true, in a very round about way), and that to insinuate otherwise was to insinuate the entire department had been involved in something underhand.

Kingsley hadn’t responded to the request with anything, and Moody had met with the reporter, which had surprised everyone.

Unfortunately for the Prophet, everything he said was punctuated with too many swear words for them to bother trying to print with the redacted swears, as he had been quite belligerent, calling Jade a good friend, an excellent auror, and that any suggestion of her doing anything but exactly by the book was frankly laughable.

Halfway through breakfast -whilst trying not to make eye contact with any students, especially Harry- Jade picked up the paper and started to read the contents.

 

_Auror Jade Greenlake (formerly Potter) is currently teaching Herbology at Hogwarts, and the Daily Prophet has received anonymous evidence that she was once in a relationship with fellow teacher Professor Severus Snape._

_The pair were at school together in a year group that has created as many tragic heroes of the war as it did Death Eaters._

_The evidence was in the form of a letter written by Auror Greenlake to Mr Snape which is dated at the end of their sixth year at Hogwarts, and it makes clear that there has been a secret relationship for several years, and that there has been some sort of argument that has broken them up._

_The interest in this comes as Severus Snape was an accused death eater during the war, and Jade Greenlake was one of the people who called for Snape’s immunity in the trials that followed You Know Who’s defeat, including Albus Dumbledore. Of course there is no suggestion that Dumbledore did anything wrong, but there could be a suggestion now that Auror Greenlake used her position as a Senior Auror to have her former boyfriend pardoned._

_Colleagues of Auror Greenlake were unwilling to comment except to quell any rumours that there was any wrongdoing, and at this time we have not asked for a comment from either Hogwarts teacher._

_It is not known what the current relationship between the pair is, but they are currently working together every day at Hogwarts, so one can only assume-_

 

After that, Jade stopped reading, throwing the paper down with a loud scoff and finishing her food in a rather sulky silence.

At the end of the meal Dumbledore stood up to make an announcement and both Jade and Severus were briefly terrified that he was going to address the Prophet’s article and let out a sigh of relief from either end of the table when he started to talk.

“Now, as you all know, Professor Lockhart is no longer with us on the teaching staff. As I have already said, there will be no exams except for seventh year students this year due to everything that has happened. Unfortunately, this means that at present we do not have a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher for the rest of the term. Professor Greenlake has kindly agreed to take the position on for the remainder of the term” there was some cheering and the headmaster smiled and continued “She will be teaching that along side Herbology, so please be patient as some houses will be merged together to create bigger classes that are more manageable for Professor Greenlake to accommodate both. Now, get going, class begins in 45 minutes”

 

Jade had to get some text books from the staff room before teaching the Defence Against The Dark Arts for the sixth years and hurried there quickly, trying to avoid as many people as possible.

On one of the tables there was another copy of the Prophet article open, and Jade just blinked at the article, not sure if she wanted to laugh or scream, a picture of her in her Auror robes from a decade ago smiling back at her on the paper.

McGonnaghal was at the doorway, looking at her former student with an encouraging smile “Are you going to ignore it or just approach it head on? This is the talk of the school you know”

She just nodded, glancing again at the newspaper distractedly “I don’t know. It’s none of anyone’s business, not that teenagers really care”

“Well, two of their teachers who are exceptionally private were once in a relationship, you can’t pretend that if it had happened when you were their age you wouldn’t have been interested”

Jade just shrugged in a noncommittal way “nosy teenagers I can deal with, the issue is how they have tried to taint my entire career in the Ministry, I mean, I’ll have to do some damage control... god I don’t even want to know how many letters I’m going to have today” she groaned, rubbing her eyes “God I haven’t even spoken to Remus. Oh Merlin what is he going to say?”

“Remus didn’t know?”

“No. He probably suspected but... none of them knew, that was the point... James and Sirius were vile to Severus and I knew it would be worse if they knew so...”

“That must have been hard, keeping a secret from your twin brother and friends”

Jade just looked up with a defeated shrug “he was worth it”

McGonnaghal didn’t know what to say and moved to the side when Jade picked up the text books and headed out to her first DADA class.

 

Whilst Jade had never taught DADA, it was coming fairly naturally to her, even if they had a large knowledge gap from having a terrible teacher for nearly a year.

The class was unnaturally quiet and she knew that they were all debating how to ask her. After about half an hour of almost silence Jade put her hands on the desk and looked up “right, if anyone wants to ask something, go ahead, if this silence carries on I will go insane”

One brave Hufflepuff spoke up, his voice wavering slightly

“Uh, Professor?”

“Yes?”

“Did you.... you and....?”

“Merlin, have I got to **_ask_** and **_answer_** the question for you? Yes, okay, when I was at Hogwarts, I was in a relationship with Professor Snape, I’m in my 30’s now so as you can imagine that was a very, very long time ago”

The class all looked staggered “but Professor...”

Jade rolled her eyes, clearly already over the conversation “no, I am too old and too tired for this conversation right now. If anyone else asks me another question the entire class gets a Saturday detention, _have I made myself clear_?”

 

Severus and Jade were objectively the scariest teachers, in so much as Severus had a generally threatening demeanour, and Jade’s history with the auror Department was well know.

Jade was generally a fairly relaxed teacher but no one wanted to get on the wrong side of her.

Severus however was a different story, there was no student in the school frankly stupid enough to ask the potions teacher about how he had dated the Herbology teacher when they were teenagers.

The only slight ray of sunshine in Severus’ situation was the fact that his class were silent, which was a nice change.

 

 

To say that Jade was stressed was an understatement, she felt like an elastic band that was being stretched and stretched until she was likely to snap. At least they didn’t have to escort the students anywhere anymore, and some of her classes had been merged together so that she could teach both subjects.

Thankfully the NEWT students for both herbology and DADA were small enough and mature enough that she was able to amalgamate them into one large class of each subject, and other year groups had gone into Slytherin and Ravenclaw, and then Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.

What it did mean however was that Jade was going to be teaching all day every day for the rest of the term, and she was frankly incredibly grateful that exams had been called off. Well, the NEWTS hadn’t, the students would need them to apply for jobs so it was necessary, but everyone else’s had been cancelled.

Jade had resigned herself to helping the final year DADA students in her free time if they wanted, as they’d had a less than stellar teacher so far that year, and she wanted to give them a fighting chance.

 

 

Severus knew he was not in Jade’s good books. Even letting Lucius in his house was a bad move in her mind, and since the article had come out in the morning, she hadn’t even looked at him, let alone spoken to him.

She’d had lunch in her office between classes, and at dinner had been completely absent. He wasn’t too thrilled either, as this meant the baffled and confused glances from students were only aimed at him, with everyone wondering how **_he_** had managed to get someone so beautiful and successful.

 

Jade had sent a letter out at lunch time as she ate a sandwich at her desk, and had received a response almost immediately.

Remus was of course going to jump at the chance to speak to her, and they had agreed to meet at her Diagon Alley apartment at around 7, and she had nipped to the kitchens to get some food first before taking the floo.

 

Remus was dependable to a fault, and was already sat on one of the large sofas when she arrived.

He smiled kindly at her but Jade was cold and wary, sitting down heavily on the other sofa.

“Moony, I assume you’ve seen the papers?”

“Obviously”

There was an uneasy silence and Jade lit up a cigarette before Remus spoke first “you know you shouldn’t smoke in here, it’ll make the furniture smell”

“Well firstly it’s my furniture so that’s my prerogative, and then also I’ve got a spell that sorts it, and judging by the fact I’m now teaching two subjects to a load of teenagers who want to know about my own teenage love life, and then there’s the fact that the press are trying to judge all the work I’ve done against one thing from when I was a teenager and...” Jade didn’t know what else to say, taking a rather long drag on the cigarette.

“Don’t you want to ask me about it, Moony, if you’ve read the article?”

“Well, what do you want me to say Jade? I’m A bit offended you didn’t say anything to me back then but, well, what would James and Sirius have said? I’m actually surprised how much I  ** _wasn’t_** surprised. I thought maybe he had a thing for you but I wasn’t too sure how you felt, obviously I never told Padfoot or Prongs”

“Thanks”

“Did James ever find out?”

“Not long before he died we argued and I told him, mostly just to throw it in his face.

He was being quite arrogant and I got carried away”

“What did he say?”

“Well he wasn’t happy I’d lied to him for years”

“How long were you two... together, at school?”

“As in a relationship?”

“Yes”

“We had our first kiss the night before that Duelling tournament we both won, and then it stopped just before our final year”

Remus looked stunned

“You kept it quiet that whole time? And no one knew?”

“Oh people know, our friends knew, I just had to make sure they wouldn’t tell you guys. Frank Longbottom knew very early on. We were doing that extra herbology work so we were together a lot, Claire knew, Martha knew, I mean there’s a list if you really need it”

“Don’t get moody with me, I’m just… to keep that secret Jade, you must have really liked him”

Her eyes flickered away from his intense gaze and Remus read the move easily “Well I suppose you must have loved him, dating him for a few years”

Jade finished her cigarette and used magic to vanish it along with the smell which gave Remus a chance to really look at her.

There were bags under her eyes, her hair was becoming frizzy on top of the curls from the stressed running of her fingers through it, but mostly he noted just how hurt she looked.

“Jade…? Can I ask you something and I want you to be honest with me rather than just snap at me and apparate away”

She knew what the question was going to be before it left his lips

“After the war, did you and Snape… it wasn’t only at school was it J?”

 

 

Miles away, on a dark, desolate island that housed Azkaban, Sirius Black was reading the Daily Prophet in his freezing cold, damp cell. The noise he let out was the closest thing to a laugh he had managed in close to a decade in prison.

He and James had thought they were so smart and so clever, but Jade had clearly been far, far, far more smart than them. He couldn’t help but honk that explained why she’d been handpicked as an Auror before even doing her final exams.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the kudos recently! Very much appreciated.  
> As are all the comments etc. Thanks! x


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jade won't speak to the Ministry, so the Ministry comes to her, and Severus finally talks to Jade.

Sirius Black had nothing but time on his hands, nothing but time to sit in his cold, dark cell as he looked over the article about Jade and Snape yet again.

Jade had been furious after what Sirius had done to him, nearly getting him attacked by Remus during the full moon. Admittedly, looking back, Sirius wasn’t exactly proud of what he had done to the dark haired Slytherin boy, but he’d felt bad enough without Jade’s anger having made it worse.

Sirius knew Jade well, and she’d have been furious no matter who it was, but now that he knew that she had been dating Snape at the time, it put a lot of things in to perspective.

He’d partially done it to try and impress Jade in a particularly stupid teenage show of idiotic bravado and attention seeking. Even James had thought it was too far, and that was saying something.

Peter had pointedly not got involved in the argument, which made it clear to everyone that he had secretly agreed with Jade that it had gone way too far.

It had happened the week the students were going home for Christmas and in a furious rage at her brother and Sirius – who was going back to the Potter house as his own parents weren’t speaking to him- Jade had stayed at Hogwarts, leaving the two boys to explain to the Potter’s what had happened. Sirius hadn’t known at the time that it was his taunting of Severus to impress Jade which had led to her staying at the school that Christmas, and then sleeping with Severus for the first time, and pushing a further wedge between Sirius, James and Jade.

 

 

_The Marauders were talking in the otherwise empty Gryffindor Common Room at about 1am, all in their pyjamas and sat on the various sofas._

_Remus looked pale and sickly, Peter had his lips pressed into a hard line, saying nothing, and Sirius and James were talking quietly._

_The portrait door suddenly swung open and the four boys looked up, seeing the familiar pale, freckled face that mirrored James’, though Jade’s was full of pure, clear anger._

_She was wearing a dark red dress with a black cardigan, hair in a high ponytail, and practically shaking with anger._

_Jade pulled her wand out, pointing it at Sirius “you stupid, stupid bloody idiot!”_

_“Alright Potter, keep your hair on!”_

_“I went to the Hospital Wing expecting to see Remus recovering” she glanced at the sickly boy “You look awful by the way. I found that Moony wasn’t there but Severus was. He refused to say what happened initially but I got it out of him eventually, and then I went to see McGonnaghal and found that you’re all getting away with it, like you didn’t try and get a student killed”_

_Remus looked apologetic “I didnt-“_

_She aggressively cut him off “it’s not your fault Remus, it’s these two idiots. I know you’d have never gone along with it if you had known”_

_Sirius looked at least slightly apologetic “I didn’t think it would go that far-”_

_“Well then you are stupider than you look”_

_James pulled a face, not really wanting to get involved “Bug, come on, Snape is going to be okay”_

_“Don’t get involved James, you two are as thick as each other. Moony could have hurt a student, and his secret could have come out because of you, is that what you think makes you a good friend? You’ve been a crappy brother recently but I didn’t realise ou were going to start taking it out on innocent students”_

_James was exasperated “Snape isn’t an angel Bug-”_

_Jade looked frustrated and angry at the same time. “Why do you hate him so much? You think it’s funny because his parents don’t have a lot of money? You think that’s his fault do you? Think you need to take him down a peg just because our dad is a rich inventor, and Sirius’s family made a load of money in the dark arts? Think that’s funny do you? Why don’t you go and take the piss out of Dirk Cresswell, his dads left so his mums having to work several jobs and they’ve got no money- think that’s funny do you? Think everyone else is an idiot because their parents aren’t inventors or dark maniacs”_

_The last part was pointed at Sirius who looked annoyed “just because my parents are, doesn’t mean I am”_

_“Oh really. So you think you shouldn’t be judged by what your parents are? Severus’s father is a wife beating alcoholic muggle who makes his sons life a misery, and his mother is a witch so scared she doesn’t even use magic around him. You think it’s funny that they don’t have money? You think it’s kind to take the piss out of him? To threaten him? Do you not get what could have happened today, Severus could have been killed”_

_“Jade, I was there-“_

_“-At the very last minute! I don’t care if you hate Severus because you’re ignorant bastards, but did neither of you ever think about Remus? He’s the most gentle person you’ll ever meet, how do you think he would have felt if he transformed back and found out he had injured or killed someone? But I guess you two are so stuck up your own arse that you didn’t even care?”_

_James looked annoyed “yes, but Jade he didn’t actually-“_

_“You nearly killed a student and you didn’t even get a slap on the wrist, let alone a detention”_

_Sirius spoke before thinking, as usual “look if you want to shag him so badly then go ahead, but it’s pathetic how he follows you around like a dog and-“_

_He never finished the sentence because of the hard slap across his face._

_Jade had given him light-hearted slaps in a joking way before but this one was hard, sharp and incredibly painful and Peter and Remus both audibly sucked in a breath in a gasp._

_James looked shocked “J, seriously calm down, snivellus-“_

_He hadn’t even meant to call him that, he’d intended to say Severus or Snape but the nickname had slipped out and Jade didn’t even bother using the wand in her left hand, instead punching her twin brother with her right hand balled into a fist, sending him reeling back with blood trickling out of his nose._

_“Fucking hell!”_

_“How about I leave you to tell mum and dad why I’m staying here the Christmas”_

_“But we’re leaving tomorrow-“_

_“I’m not, in staying here and you can tell mum and dad why. I’m not spending Christmas with you two” that was pointed between the two of them, as Sirius spent all his time outside the castle at the Potter house now._

_Jade had stormed up to her dormitory, and none of the Marauders saw her the following morning before getting the train._  
  
  
The next morning the students returning home got on the train at 10.30 and left at 11, so everyone had been at breakfast, but by lunch it was only a scattering of students left, the ones who weren’t or couldn’t go home to their own or someone else’s. House tables were abandoned as there was a total of 18 students staying across the entire castle and all year groups, so there wasn’t much point in them sitting separately.

_Severus was sat at what was technically the Ravenclaw table, a bandage over his left forearm from the whomping willow incident, and sitting apart from the other students, picking at a toasted cheese and ham sandwich whilst reading from a thick book from the library._

_He wasn’t paying attention until someone sat down heavily beside him with a grin “alright Sev, if you’re going to do your homework the whole holiday period then you and I are going to fall out and I’ll get bored”_

_He looked up with surprise and saw Jade sat there, wearing a black dress and converse, her eyes bright with a smile._

_“You- why are you here?”_

_“Well, nice to see you too” She grumbled as she leant over him to grab a sandwich and took a bite as he spoke, still looking baffled._

_“But your brother-“_

_“-is an idiot, and he went this morning with Sirius. Mum and dad are going to go mental, but with him not me. They’re pretty free wheeling you know, don’t really care what we do as long as no one gets hurt, which is why they’ll kill them when they find out about the willow incident. Anyway, you’ve got me to keep you company this Christmas, unless you’d rather I went?”_  
  
  
  
There were hardly any teachers and only 18 students, so rules were fairly lax that Christmas. Several students were wandering past curfew but nothing was enforced, and Jade had told Severus to meet her later at the room of requirement. 

_It was the 8th of January, so his birthday was the following day and the students would all be returning two days after that._

_They had spent the day in the library, learning spells and messing around with magic, a very casual day and just having fun._

_They had been to the Room of Requirement before, but after dinner Jade slipped her hand into Severus’ and they had walked silently down the empty corridor, and he gave her a curious look with his head to one side but Jade said nothing, just kept walking._

_There wasn’t much in the Room of Requirement, and it looked like the Gryffindor common room, a warm cosy fire, dim lighting and an arrangement of comfy sofas around a large tartan rug that was in front of the fireplace._

_Jade looked nervous and kissed him gently._

_Severus smiled into the kiss and kissed her back, it wasn’t their first kiss so it didn’t really take him by surprise._

_What did take him by surprise was the way her fingers curled into the back of his hair as she depended the kiss and he took the unsaid message and let his hands make their way to her hips, pulling her against him._

_Their height difference meant that his erection was poking her lower belly and she moved first, unbuttoning the top buttons of his shirt as he hastily moved to pull her dress over her head._

_It wasn’t fantastic and mind blowing, when two virgins have sex it rarely is, but they were both sweaty, grinning and lying under a transfigured blanket as he held her tightly and she left a hand on his chest, feeling his fast heartbeat and smirking to herself that she was the cause of it._

_“That was... amazing... I-“_

_She kissed him gently “happy birthday Severus”_

 

Daydreaming at breakfast, Jade had been remembering the same thing that Sirius had, though Padfoot was unaware of what Jade and Severus had done at the castle over that Christmas.

She was still not 100% better after the bout of pain from the dark magic attack and hadn’t been sleeping well since agreeing to teach both DADA and Herbology back to back, and had largely been avoiding Snape since the article had come out, and he knew that she was still furious with him.

Jade didn’t have time to speak to anyone at the ministry, and made it clear that if they wanted to discuss the content of the article then they had better come to her, as she wasn’t going to make the trip.

 

That was how Rufus Scrimgeour found himself trying to wade through a tidal wave of teenage students who were rushing from their classes towards the Great Hall for lunch later that day.

He knew where Jade was teaching, as he’d already spoken to Dumbledore rather than barging his way into the castle, and the Headmaster had told him which classroom the Auror was in.

The classroom had emptied the second the bell had gone for lunch, and she was sat in her teaching robes, hair in a side plait over one shoulder, writing notes on parchment from a heavy book in front of her, clearly not having the time to leave the desk for food.

She heard him at the door and glanced up with obvious confusion at him there, seeing the tailored suit, shoulder length curly light brown hair of her head of department.

There was a moment of silence before he closed the classroom door behind himself.

“You’re here to tell me I’m an awful person?”

“No”

“Fire me?”

“I don’t have power here”

“I meant from the ministry”

“Oh gods no. I’m not here to berate you at all actually”

“Then why are you here?”

“Can’t I come and speak to a colleague without all this suspicion?”

“Rufus, if you had just walked down a corridor at the Ministryto chat to me it would be fine, but you’ve had to apparated to the castle, walk over muddy grass, and through several corridors of students just to have a ‘chat’, and that happens to be only a few days after a huge article came out about me, and the reporter was asking you for a comment. So no I don’t think this was you just popping by”

“Very well. I wanted to say this in person, as things don’t always come across well in a letter. Your position in the ministry is unchanged, you won’t be deleting fed, you won’t be demoted, you won’t have Auror’s privilege removed, there isn’t going to be any action against you because of some article in the Daily Prophet of all places. They’ve said worse about most of us”

“I thought… I didn’t request the immunity because I’d been in a relationship with him at school, I want you to know that”

“I don’t care who you were... with... when you were a teenager, nor am I bothered about who you have been with as an adult. I will confess that after that Prophet reporter came to me and said you’d dated Severus Snape in Hogwarts I was surprised but I’ve spoken to those involved in his immunity after the war, and even without your involvement it would have gone through regardless”

Jade blinked in obvious surprise as Scrimgeour glanced out the window briefly as a flurry of owls passed, and then back to the young woman.

“You see, Albus Dumbledore had arranged it before you asked for it. You never told us who passed you information about the Attack on the Ministry, but I can assume it was Severus, as by that point he was passing information to Dumbledore and the Order but only Albus was aware. I agreed to it purely on Albus’ word, and Kingsley agreed purely on your word. You did nothing wrong. Did he tell you about the attack on the ministry then?”

Jade only gave a very small movement of her head, barely a nod.

“I gathered as much, I’ll talk to you about it next time you’re at the Ministry, you look like you’ve got enough to be getting on with, teaching two subjects, I’ll let you get on”

Rufus moved to leave and Jade called out to stop him

“Rufus?”

He turned and saw the twinkling in her eyes, aware she was going to ask for a favour “what is it?”

“Have you got much on this afternoon?”

“That depends on what you’re going to ask me to do”

“I’ve got seventh year Defence Against The Dark Arts students after lunch. They are still doing their NEWT exams even though everyone else has theirs cancelled, and they’ve had a rubbish teacher so far, a lot of them want to work for the Ministry but they’re a bit... disheartened... any chance you can do a bit of a talk with them?”

“Wouldn’t speaking to the youngest auror ever in the history of the Ministry, and the same girl who was promoted to senior Auror, still the youngest one ever- wouldn’t that be enough?”

Jade shook her head “I’m their boring teacher, they don’t care about that. Please? For me?”

 

The NEWT students were surprised to see the head of the Auror office sat with a rather grumpy expression in a chair at the front of the classroom, Professor Greenlake looking very amused and proud of herself.

“Sit down, come on. I’ve managed to convince the Head of the Auror Department to talk to you today, and he’s clearly ** _thrilled_** to be here as you can tell by the scowl on his face. He’s also agreed to show some duelling tactics with me, as I’m not prepared to do it on a student”

Two hours later, as the students filed out after asking their questions an exhausted looking Rufus looked at her.

“I don’t know how you do it”

“Do what?”

“Have the energy to deal with this, teenagers all day every day, I’d rather be hunting Death Eaters than this”

Jade just laughed with a shrug as she collected the text books up “Honestly, I think they’re more difficult than rogue death eaters and dark wizards some times. I don’t remember being that hormonally charged at their age”

“I’m sure your teachers from that time would care to disagree”

“I was a good student I’ll have you know!”

“I’ve seen your grades, and all the comments from all your teachers. You can’t even begin to know how much discussion was needed before we hired a student straight from Hogwarts, we’d decided on you before you even turned 18, then had to see if it was do-able. Anyway, I really need to get back to the Ministry before Kingsley declares me a missing person. Look after yourself Jade”

 

Severus had had enough of trying to avoid Jade to give her space. She was absent from most meals, and those she was at she didn’t look at or speak to him. The students were still fascinated, though he understood the interest.

Jade was stunning, everyone agreed, not just Severus who was hopelessly in love with her. She was accomplished, highly commended, popular, friendly and outgoing. Severus was, well, Severus. The students saw him as a former Death Eater and miserable dungeon bat, which was a personality he’d been more than happy for them to believe for years.

They were all confused by the fact the two had once dated, and were obviously curious as to what the current dynamic was between the two now, which wasn’t helped b the fact Jade was barely being seen in his company any more.

At dinner there was again an empty space where Jade usually sat and Severus finished up quickly and swept out of the room, feeling the eyes of several students following him out.

He swept down to his own room, taking the floo into Jade’s room, thankful that she hadn’t blocked him from her floo network.

There was music quietly playing and Jade was sat in pyjamas on her sofa, reading from a book he didn’t recognise and she glanced up at him with obvious surprise as she stepped out of the fireplace.

“You weren’t at dinner”

“Yes well I’m a bit sick of students staring at me whilst I eat, and I’ve been busy so the elves brought me food whilst I was helping some fourth years who wanted duelling help”

“You can’t run yourself into the ground with exhaustion”

“There is only a few weeks left of the term. The potion should be ready this week to revive the petrified students, and I still haven’t spoken to Harry this week either… I just wanted some time not around the students, considering… the article”

Jade had put her book down and Severus put his hands awkwardly in his pockets after running a hand through is hair.

“I’m sorry”

“I know”

“What have the ministry said? I heard the students saying Scrimgeour was here earlier?”

“So it turns out that Albus had already discussed your immunity by the time I did it so that was news to me. Regardless, Rufus told me they’re not bothered about the article, and I’m not being fired or brought in for a talk, he was more annoyed by the fact the reporter was meddling than our teenage relationship. He can’t have been too annoyed, he stayed to help out with my final year students”

“That’s good”

There was a pause as Jade idly fiddled with the corner of the throw over the back of the sofa and Severus thought about what to say and he moved and sat on the coffee table in front of where Jade was sat on the sofa.

“I am, uh, you know I’m sorry don’t you”

“You’ve _literally_ just said that”

“I’m just worried about... I don’t even know what to say. I haven’t spoken to Lucius yet but he’ll only deny it. I’m just so, so sorry”

Jade let out a small, frustrated sigh “I’m not angry at you, but if you keep on saying sorry I’m going to start getting pissed off”

“You’re not...?”

Jade let out a frustrated huff “god you’re being so annoying. No, Severus I’m not annoyed with you. Do I think you’re too trusting of Lucius Malfoy- Yes. That’s it. Remus was a bit surprised and the students are being insufferable but you know me, Severus, I don’t give a shit what people think about me”

“I really don’t know what to say Jade”

“Don’t say anything”

She grabbed at the front of his robes, tugging him down for a brief kiss on the lips before pulling back and seeing the confused look on his face.

“I don’t want to do this anymore”

He looked briefly worried “us?”

“No, I don’t want to lie anymore, I don’t care who knows that we’re together, but I won’t continue to lie, either we’re honest or we don’t do this anymore”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wonder what the students are going to say now?!  
> Let me know what you think, what you want to see, and the kuds and love is always appreciated.
> 
> Hope you all had a good Christmas!


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We finally see what happened the night Jade was attacked by Bellatrix and McLeish and the death eaters killed the Prewett twins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am on a lot of medications today for migraines so this might not be the best, and I will probably read this tomorrow and hate it but here it is!  
> Remember how Lucius Malfoy revealed he led them to Jade which saved her life.... well....  
> And I thought you'd want to see the other side of the conversation Jade and Remus had a few chapters ago after the Prophet article came out.
> 
> Oh, and we have smut in this so you have been warned...

The petrification revival potion was an easy one by Snape’s standard of skill, but it had taken a long time to brew, and Jade was glad that the exams were cancelled for most of the students, as Penelope Clearwater and Hermione would be devastated to have missed so much and then have to try and keep their grades up.

Jade had sat with the students as they came around, and had had a long chat with Colin Creevey about how an iron and remote control for a tv worked, the muggle born thrilled he could teach her something.

That evening at dinner Jade had a smile on her face as she watched Hermione hugging Ron and Hary tightly, grateful that she’d managed to make her nephew happy again.

 

 

Severus was in a vile mood, having overheard yet another student wondering to a friend how on earth he had managed to get Jade to date him, and they had been giggling about the idea that she would do it again as an adult.

That was partially when he had only half agreed to Jade’s insistence that they go ‘public’ with their relationship, and they had come to an agreement that she would leave him until September when the next school year started to decide what he wanted to do.

He knew Jade didn’t care what other people thought about her, but Severus cared what people would say about her.

After dinner he had been forced to talk to some sixth year students about their homework and so was in an even worse mood by the time he got to his rooms, tired and angry.

The sight that greeted him made things a lot easier though. Instantly.

The bedroom door was open wide so as he closed the main door behind him, he could see Jade coming out from the bedroom, and he stopped sharply.

Jade’s hair was loosely curly, perfectly framing her face, and she had smoky eyeshadow, winged eyeliner and deep red lipstick. His eyes only lingered on her face for a second though, as it was the dark green lace bra with matching knickers and suspenders that really took his attention.

“Wow”

Jade gave him a knowing smirk and sauntered over to where Severus was rooted to the spot, eyes wide and following her every movement and thinking that nothing in his head could ever come close to how good she looked in that moment.

“You see, I know things have been difficult, it’s been a long, long year, but I wanted to surprise you”

They were level now and he leant his head down to kiss her gently “a very, very good surprise”

Jade kissed him back as she unbuckled his black belt and pulled it through the loops and let it clatter to the floor. Severus’ breathing hitched slightly as she started to unbutton the top of his trousers but he stilled her with a grasp of her wrist.

Jade looked worried for a second, thinking that he didn’t want her, but instead he kissed down behind her ear and along her jaw as he snaked a hand down her stomach and then into her knickers, which caused an immediate groan from Jade’s lips until she clenched and grabbed onto his arm with a shuddering breath.

He spoke into her ear, the feel of his breath against her skin making Jade shiver with anticipation “Turn around, against the wall”

Jade’s breath was coming out as heavily as if she’d been for a run and he was too worked up to even remove her underwear, just moving it to the side and suddenly he was inside her and they both let out identical groans and he was mentally grateful of all the silencing charms on the room.

As he started moving, the noises, groans and muttered swear words tumbling out of Jade’s mouth were running into one long, loud stream of words.

Jade’s skin was starting to flush and cover in a sheen of sweat and as she pushed back, Severus knew that she was okay with him being so much in control, and he tightly gripped her hips and moved faster.  
  


When he finished the room was hot and silent apart from the two teachers trying to gather their breath again, and Severus pulled Jade up, kissing her shoulder and behind her ear, feeling her chest expanding and inhaling quickly beneath his touch.

“God what did I do to deserve you?”

Jade smirked at that, though she was clearly exhausted, every muscle relaxed and tiredness washing over her.

“No one deserved me Sev, I’m bloody brilliant. Now, I just want to go to sleep”

“Shower?”

Jade shook her head with a yawn “Too tired. Bed. Now”

She simply turned and walked into the bedroom, finally taking off the bra and dropping it to the floor as Severus moved to the doorway and watched as she took off her underwear and the suspenders and slid under the duvet completely naked.

She touched on her oak wand on the bedside table and muttered a few spells that Severus assumed were the usual contraception and makeup removal ones before she went to sleep.

“You know you’re bossy when you’re tired Jade”

“Shut up and get in bed and keep me warm”

“Yes ma’am”

 

Jade rarely slept peacefully, usually only when she was so exhausted that her brain could just switch off.

That night, sleeping in a sweaty, relaxed haze beside Severus, her expensive green lace underwear in a pile on the floor, Jade’s memory brought up one of her most painful memories, and it was one that she had tried hard to keep at bay as much as possible.

 

_Alastor had made it clear it was too soon after James and Lily had been killed, and that with Sirius still on the run, that Jade shouldn’t be back on the job with them._

_Gideon and Fabian Prewett had realised that she needed something to do, and when information came up about a possible Death Eater hideout, they had known they’d had to move fast and had agreed that Jade could come with them._

_They were twins, and knew what she was going through, so they had all apparated to the location._

_Gideon was in blue jeans and a black hoodie, Fabian had a burgundy shirt with the top two buttons undone and the sleeves rolled back to his elbows and black jeans on. Jade was wearing a black dress that went to a little above her knees and black leather ankle boots, her hair in a slightly messy bun with a few curls hanging out of it. She was still in her black Auror robes open down the middle as the twins had found her straight after a rather lengthy talk with the Deputy Minister for Magic._

_The building was quiet, too quiet, and Gideon and Jade looked at each other with wary expressions as Fabian looked around the dilapidated front room with obvious concern on his face._

_Fabian turned to her “J- I don’t like this, apprarate away”_

_“No, Alastor will murder me himself if I leave you two, so don’t bother. I’ll look upstairs”_

_Gideon still looked unhappy “This doesn’t feel right, we should go”_

_Fabian shook his head “No, we need to have a look around at least”_

_Jade agreed with him, clearly sarcastic “listen to your brother Gid, he’s clearly the smart one, not that that is a high benchmark. Look, if I fall through the floor and die, I love you both okay”_

_Fabian shook his head “Don’t make jokes about that sort of thing”_

_She just rolled her eyes at him and started to head up the stairs, giving the red headed twins and sarcastic wave “love you both, try not to miss me too much”_

_As she disappeared up the stairs Fabian spoke quietly to his twin “she’s not over losing James yet, don’t be so hard on her”_

_Seconds later, the noise of people apparating in to building turned everyone senses on to high alert and upstairs, the grip Jade had on her wand was so tight she thought it would snap._

_Downstairs there was banging, shouting, yelling, and the sound of spells smashing through the fragile building structure. Jade shouted for the twins but they wouldn’t have heard her over the noise. She saw a movement in the corner of her eye and Jade managed to get a curse and two violent hex’s at Bellatrix before the much older witch was brought to the floor, eyes violently fixed on Jade._

_She was never distracted, she was trained to the highest level, but there was a noise from downstairs that cut above the rest._

_It was Gideon screaming, his voice anguished “FABIAN!”_

_She knew immediately that he’d seen his brother die, and it was the first time Jade Greenlake faltered in her life, and that was when Bellatrix struck._  
  
The pain ripped through her body over and over and over again and the last thing she was aware of before everything started to go blurry, was the fact that she couldn’t hear Gideon nor Fabian anymore, and a voice she vaguely recognised as McLeish was laughing manically from the floor below.  
  
Suddenly wide awake, Jade sat bolt upright, breathing heavily and drenched in sweat, looking around the dark room to steady herself.

_5 things you can see, 3 things you can hear…………………_

It was something Kingsley had taught her to ground herself and calm down, and Jade blinked as her eyes adjusted to the darkness.

_5 things I can see: 1. Severus asleep next to me. 2. Moonlight through the curtains I didn’t close properly. 3. The little pot of wormwood Sprout had given her as a present that was sat on the desk. 4. Stack of marking that should have been done already. 5. Daily Prophet from yesterday sticking out of the bin._

_3 things I can hear. 1. Severus snoring gently. 2. My own breathing slowing down. 3. An owl hooting in the distance_

Jade felt her heart rate slow down towards a normal rhythm and glanced to her side where Severus was lying on his side, fast asleep. In that moment Jade knew that even if they broke up, she wouldn’t get over him. She’d probably move on but he’d always be the most important person to her, just as he always had been.

Jade felt cold as the sweat on her skin started to cool and she shuffled back under the sheets.

Still fast asleep Severus reached out for her, curling his front against her back, spooning her and warming her, and arm draped over her body as she drifted off to sleep, finger briefly touching the scarring on her chest before sleep overwhelmed her.

 

Jade’s recollection of the events on the night Gideon and Fabian died only went up to the point where she passed out from the pain of the Dark Magic taking effect on her body, and she had been so deeply unconscious and covered in blood that Bellatrix had left, thinking that she was dead or at least so close to it that there was no need to stay.

What Bellatrix didn’t know was that Alastor Moody had seen a silvery white peacock patronus trying to get the grumpy old man to follow him, and he had taken the leap of faith and followed it, unaware that it was Lucius Malfoy leading him to the crumbling house.

Malfoy hadn’t been there at the attack but since Voldermort had been defeated, there was a chance that his family would come out of it in a relatively good position, and that wasn’t going to happen if his wife’s sister killed the young Auror. Not only was she popular, talented and beautiful, she was also the daughter of two of the richest and most well likely wizards in generations, and the twin sister of the recently murdered James Potter, the young man who’s toddler had killed the most powerful wizard in human history.

What Alastor Moody remembered of that night was arguably just as painful as what Jade had gone through before her memory became patchy.

 

_Moody crouched beside her barely moving body, knees in warm blood and rubble, muttering charms to stem the rapid flow of blood from the expanding wound._

_Jade’s blood covered hands grasped at his sleeves, her voice barely audible and her skin as pale as a ghost “the twins, are they - they- did they-?”_

_Even on the brink of death, Jade knew exactly what the look of pure and utter anguish on her friends face meant, the drops of water falling on her left cheek were his tears._

_“No, pl-please, I can’t... they can’t be”_

_With that the pain subsided, the bleeding stopped, and she went cold and limp in Alastor’s arms before he apparated her into St Mungo’s, leaving the teams of Aurors and the twins dead bodies back at the house, practically screaming the place down for as many healers as possible._

_Jade was so far gone that one of the healers had just shaken their head grimly, thinking it better to let her slip into the darkness than risk further injury, but one of the senior healers had been friends with James and Jade’s parents and recognised her beneath the dirt and blood, and had made it clear she was to be saved at all costs._

_It wouldn’t be until four days later that Kingsley and Moody were sat at her bedside as Jade began to stir._

_Kingsley felt so at a loss of what to do or say as the older man beside him gripped the wooden staff so tightly that it creaked beneath his hands, and he was clearly trying to hold his emotions in check._

_Kingsley managed to quietly say “I’ll send a healer in as she’s waking, then I’ll let Remus Lupin know, he’s been as worried as us”_

_All he got was a grunt in return from Alastor as he left the room, and Jade began to twitch her hand slightly with her eyes still closed as a Healer came in to the room to check her over._

_The silence was broken only by her steady breathing but as they watched, it quickened until she was breathing rapidly and shakily before a scream cut through the room, her eyes opened and she began to claw at the bandages across her chest._

_The Healer muttered a few spells that calmed her down and Jade lay back against the headboard as the healer moved back towards the door, still keeping an eye but giving the two Auror’s a second to themselves as he pointedly pretended to look out the window._

_Moody looked lost for words as Jade’s freezing cold hand reached out for his own one “Gideon...?”_

_The older Auror shook his head as an answer and her voice was even quieter this time “F-Fabian?”_

_Again the only answer was a shake of the head and Jade felt like her heart was being squeezed and the air struggling to make its way to her brain. She was confused, delirious and in almost unbearable pain still. Her voice was cracked and quiet “They would never be able to live without the other one… twins… I…” she was clearly trying to think and Moody was desperately hoping that she wasn’t going to ask about James and that she would remember but his heart sank as she blinked in obvious confusion “Where is James? I want to see James”_

_“Jade….Gideon, Fabian, Lily and James… they were all…”_

_He didn’t even know how to break her heart further with the actual word ‘murdered’_

_Alastor Moody was not one used to strong emotions, he was calm, measured and everything was planned out, but seeing his friend in her early 20’s in pain, realising her to friends were dead, and remembering her twin brother had been murdered._

_“Please, make it stop, make it stop” There were tears streaming down her face and she was struggling to breathe, breath catching in her throat “it hurts, it’s hurting my heart”_

_The healer moved to help her but Jade screamed “Stay away from me!” and the scared young man realised quickly that this was grief, not pain. The pain from the curse wasn’t even bothering her, the grief just so overwhelming._

 

There really wasn’t much of the school year left but with Jade teaching two subjects until the end it still meant that she was really up against it, even if the exams were cancelled except for final year students.

She was teaching a third year Defence Against the Dark Arts class the day after her night of disturbed sleep and it was whilst they were writing down the homework off the board that her mind wondered to the conversation she had had with Remus the week that the stupid article had come out in the Daily Prophet.

_All Remus had asked her was to not freak out and to not simply apparate away._

_She’d seriously considered the latter but Remus has just looked so caring and concerned that she’d just looked down at her feet and shrugged._

_“What do you want me to say Moony?”_

_“I don’t know, you’re a grown woman you can do what and whoever you want I just don’t understand the need to lie to me, of all people, for all these years. I sort of understand when we were at Hogwarts but since we graduated it just seems...”_

_“You saw how everyone reacted when they found out we were together at school, imagine if they’d know about us since then”_

_“Jade you deserve to be happy, and if it’s Severus Snape that does that for you then go for it, but you don’t deserve to spend your whole life sneaking around. Don’t you want to get married one day?”_

_“No” Remus saw through the lie but let it slide_

_“I always imagined you having children, that might give it away a bit”_

_“I can’t have children Remus, you know that”_

_“They did say it was possible Jade, just difficult”_

_“I’d rather not chat about my fertility right now Moony”_

_“No, I get that... does he make you happy? Severus I mean”_

_Jade just shrugged and Remus continued thinking aloud._

_“Well I guess he must, you’ve been together since you were sixteen and were in our 30’s now, you’re not one to hang around unless you want to”_

_Again Jade had just shrugged in a rather noncommittal way, wondering what exactly Remus wanted from her._

_“You’re one of my best friends Jade, alright, you literally went to prison rather than admit that you were all underage animagi because I am a werewolf, I owe you massively, and you have never once judged me for anything, ever. I am hardly going to judge you for being happy am I”_

Jade was still trying to teach two subjects at once but had made it very, very clear that she was not going to do the same thing when Harry entered his third year, and she wasn’t going to take over Defence Against the Dark Arts, seeing as she was still convinced there was a curse on the position. The fact Lockhart was sat on the long term ward out of his mind in St Mungo’s didn’t exactly do much to convince Jade otherwise.

Her Herbology sixth years from Slytherin and Ravenclaw had worked incredibly hard through a triple lesson across three hours, though it was helped by the fact Jade had made it fun, finding only the best, brightest, weirdest and most interesting plants on the curriculum to keep them amused, and she had arranged for the house elves to bring them some cake, sandwiches and pumpkin juice at the 2 hour mark, on the strict instruction they couldn’t tell other teachers.

It was fifteen minutes until the end of the class when Lucas Farris, diligently writing notes from the middle of the class tried to get her attention.

“Professor?”

Jade didn’t respond and he tried again “Professor Greenlake?”

She glanced up finally, still not really used to being called the teaching title “sorry I was miles away, is everything okay?”

“Yes I was just wondering if you’re staying in next year?”

“Yes I will be”

He nodded “good, I’m glad”

Several students nodded and went back to their work and Jade glanced down at the leaf she had been sketching, wondering how on earth she was going to survive another year teaching.

 

After the students left the greenhouse she was surprised to see Harry waiting outside for her but as it was the end of the day and they had both finished classes, she ushered him in.

“Come sit down and have some cake whilst I tidy up?”

He dumped his bag on the floor and helped himself to a slice of carrot cake though there was a slight frown on his face “Why is there cake in your greenhouse?”

“Ah, well, the sixth years had a triple lesson and I think sugar is a good incentive to keep on working, just don’t tell anyone else. Now, what’s up?”

“Thanks, by the way, for what you did with the mandrakes, without you we wouldn’t have Hermione back”

Jade spoke before thinking “Well, Severus brewed the potion to be fair, you should thank him”

Harry pulled a slight face and Jade put down the plant pot in her hand, realising they hadn’t really discussed the contents of the article since it had come out.

She also was well aware that if it had mentioned any other name in pretty much the whole world, Harry would have been less bothered by it, but the fact that he seemed to think Severus hated him was not helping the problem.

There was an extended pause before Harry spoke, clearing the tension

“I didn’t know Snape was in my parents year at school”

“Well to be fair it probably wasn’t going to come up was it”

“No, good point”

There was a silence.

“Are you going to teach next year?”

“Yes, well, if you want me to?”

Harry looked baffled by the question “why wouldn’t I want you to?”

“I don’t know, having me around is probably cramping your style a bit isn’t it?”

“I don’t think I’ve got much style anyway to be honest”

That made her smile and the awkward tension broke as he continued.

“Of course I would want you back, you’re my aunt, we’re family”

“Yes, yes we are Harry, and we’ve got each other, okay”

“What happens with…?”

“Summer? You have to go to the Dursley’s for a short time to cover your mothers protection, but after that you are going to come live with me for the last few weeks, if that’s okay?”

Harry’s face visibly brightened “Of course it is!”

“Good, well, I was going to go and _have a word_ with the Dursley’s to make sure they aren’t too bad to you, I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to see me”

“You’ve met them before?”

Jade just laughed with a knowing smirk “Yes, I don’t think they’ll forget me, especially as I went there with your father”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one took so long!  
> Comments and kudos are so so appreciated as always! Always nice to know what you liked and what you want to see so I can work out what is going to go where. I have bits and bobs written for the next few books worth, not full chapters but big plot points, so I can shift some things! x


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a short little emotional one!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Vague/inferred mention of self harm just to warn*
> 
> This was orignally a much much longer chapter but I took the bit that actually made me so so sad out and it's going to come in a few chapters.

Claire and Jacob were surprised by the unannounced visitor on a sunny Saturday morning but as they’d been up since early morning with their son it wasn’t an issue.

Severus looked concerned and had t said anything as he came in the house, sitting on the larger sofa and staring absently at the window, clearly deep in thought.

Jacob and Claire had glanced at each other, shrugged and gone to put the kettle on.

This wasn’t the first time he had done this, and so it wasn’t too surprising to them. Clearly Severus felt at peace in their little cottage and when his brain was firing at 100 miles an hour.

After about an hour of him staring into space, Jacob went to the back room to send some emails for work, wondering how he had got to the point where a wizard appearing at his door and lurking in his front room in a grump wasn’t really that weird to him anymore.

Claire had the sleeping baby in her arms as she came in to the living room, sitting on the adjacent sofa to him and waiting for him in a comfortable silence until he finally spoke.

“So, Jade wants everyone to know we’re together”

“And?”

He looked at Claire like this was the stupidest question in the world “well I can’t do that can I”

“Why not? You’re not ashamed of her are you?”

“Don’t be an idiot”

“Exactly. I’ll guess you’ve been an idiot and told her to her face you don’t want everyone to know?”

“Why was that being an idiot?”

“Because it sounds like you’re embarrassed about her”

He just huffed at that by could somewhat see her point.

“I don’t know what to do”

“You’ve both been through a lot, so what makes you happy, and I’ll say that same thing to Jade okay. Now whilst you’re here you can make yourself useful”

Severus looked confused before Claire handed him both baby Thomas and a bottle that was slightly warm.

“He needs feeding”

“But I don’t-“

“Put the bottle on his mouth and stay there till he finishes it, it’s not difficult Sev”

He knew better than to get on the wrong side of Claire and tentatively gave the bottle to the little baby starting to wriggle in the crook of his arm and looked shocked when the baby started to guzzle down the formula.

“See, you’re a natural, we should call you the baby whisperer”

“I think I’ve got enough problems dealing with hormonal teenagers. Do you know how sick I am of handing out detentions to students who are caught all over each other in the corridors”

Claire raised an eyebrow “And you never got up to anything naughty in the corridors when you were a student I assume?”

He grinned at her with a twinkle in his eyes “yeah, well, I wasn’t stupid enough to get caught was I”

“Don’t be a smug git, now you need to burp him, but be aware he might throw up on your shoulder”

“You’ve got to be kidding me”

 

\--

 

The fact it was such a nice sunny day dod little to help Jade’s mood, as if being in a graveyard would help her feel better on any day, let alone today.

She picked her way through the grass, not really looking at the other surnames there, Dumbledore, Peverell, Bones, Longbottom, Black. All names she knew but it was the marble headstone at the back that she was heading for, grateful that no one seemed to be around.

Jade had mourned for Lily, of course she had, but she felt grateful for what she had done for Harry, and a decade on, Jade had come to terms with her death.

James however was a different story.

Seeing the memories, the love, the bickering and the laughter of their lives together boiled down to an inscription on marble made her feel physically sick every time she came to Godric’s Hollow.

After their parents funeral the twins had sat in Potter House, the home they’d grown up in, sipping fire whiskey and he’d made it clear he thought funerals were stupid.

_“I don’t know Bug, donate my body to science or something like the muggles do, I don’t want to be buried in the ground and be useless”_

_“Then where will I go to tell you all my problems?”_

_“Well, firstly, you’ll definitely die first, I’m indestructible, and secondly, I don’t want to hear your stupid problems when I’m dead. I have another of your whining alive, you’re not as bad as Padfoot I’ll admit, but you’re not great”_

Of course she hadn’t been able to donate his body to science, the muggles would ask too many questions about how he had died and it wasn’t feasible, so she’d been forced to do what he had asked her not to. Bury him in the ground a few metres from where their parents lay under a black marble headstone.

Potter House lay empty though only about a ten minute walk from the graveyard, Jade couldn’t bring herself to go there.

They’d decided to keep it in the family after their parents death but with their inheritance neither had needed the large 8 bedroom house with acres of land, and had brought smaller properties.

If the war hadn’t happened then Jade was happy for James, Lily and Harry to move in there, but of course, that had never happened, and the building was full of too many painful memories for her to even consider going back there.

The twins had been born in the first room at the top of the stairs on the third floor, and had slept their entire childhoods in rooms beside each other, had received Hogwarts letters, prefect and head boy letters, crept into the kitchen for midnight feasts together, had laughed, cried and grown together.

Now of the four of them, three members of that family were now buried in the graveyard she was sat in, and Jade just felt grief overwhelm her.

Her parents had died before anyone had been forced to choose between the dark and light, whilst she was still at school. She had worked through it, coming to terms with the loss, just as she had with the deaths of Lily, Peter, Gideon, Fabian and the loss of so many others. She’d felt like she had to grieve for Sirius, as it felt like her friend had died and some monster had been left in his place to betray James and Lily. Jade had grieved for them all, and for frank and Alice, though they were technically alive, her friends were no longer there.

Jade had come to terms with all of that, but if she was honest, she had never come to terms with what happened to James. She didn’t know if it was because he was murdered rather than had a peaceful death, whether it was because of the betray by Sirius that must have crushed him in his final moments, or whether she would just never get over the death of the brother she had shared a womb with.

It seemed to ebb and flow. She would be fine for a long time, having fond memories of the dark haired, glasses wearing best friend of her childhood, and then it would creep up, and she would find every memory or mention of his made her chest tighten, and the lump in her throat get bigger as her eyes pricked with tears, then just as quickly she would be back to normal.

 

Standing in the sunshine, there was a dark figure at the entrance to the graveyard, by the little wooden gate and she knew who it was without having to look directly at them and she half motioned for them to come over.

Jade was aware as he walked over to her and sat down beside her in the grass, glad that the sun had dried it out.

“What are you doing here Severus?”

He looked like he wasn’t too sure either “I realised the day, it’s your father’s birthday isn’t it. I couldn’t find you when I got back to the school and thought I’d find you here”

She just nodded before leaning against him, the warmth of his body and the smell of his cologne so comforting and familiar that she felt the sadness ebbing.

He kissed her hair gently and nodded towards the other headstone with ‘POTTER’ on it in white on the black marble, visible from where they were sat in front of James and Lily’s headstone.

“Is that where your parents are?”

“Yes, nearly all my family are here. The house up at the back of the village is Potter House, where we grew up, it’s been in the house for generations”

Severus knew all of this of course, and they sat for a few more minutes before Jade spoke again.

“My parents would have loved you, you know”

“I can’t believe that. James hated me”

“Yeah, but they knew he was a bit of an idiot, and if I loved someone, they would love them too”

Severus just hummed in agreement and they sat there in silence until Jade was clearly feeling like she could go, and stood up.

“Can we go back to my apartment for a bit before going back to the school, I need a bit of time to get myself together”

“Of course”

He stood up and slipped a hand into hers as they walked back over the grass, and his thumb absently stroked across a thick, deep scar on her wrist that they never spoke about, before apperating back to the Diagon Alley apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You are all amazing, thanks for reading and the love, comments and kudos you are all fantastic.  
> Next up- the teachers find out who is teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts next year with Severus and Jade having very different levels of excitement


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry goes back to the Dursley's, so Jade pays them a visit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly felt that the Dursley's would be more threatened by a load of 'weirdos' being seen around the house than an actual threat of violence!

On arrival back at the school Severus and Jade had been called to Dumbledore’s office, finding the headmaster and McGonnaghal already sat there and they had looked a little dubious as they sat down.

McGonnaghal had begun “We wanted to speak to you both about who is teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts next year”

Albus smiled gently “It’s someone you know very well, in fact he was in your year at school, you are still good friends with him Jade”

Severus and Jade had completely different reactions, as he muttered something darkly under his breath as Jade grinned, practically bouncing in her chair.

“No way! Moony? My god, he sent me an owl saying he had news but I didn’t think it would be this- oh this is great!”

Next to her Severus just shook his head “You’ve got to be kidding me”

She just rolled her eyes at him “Don’t be miserable. Moony will make a great teacher”

Albus continued “Yes, well you calling him ‘Moony’ is why we are having this conversation with just the four of us and not the entire teaching staff. Obviously the four of us in this room know about Remus Lupin’s condition, and obviously this will be kept between us four. Severus will be making Wolfsbane for Remus whilst he is here-”

Jade pulled a face, cutting off Albus

“Sorry, Severus is doing _what_? Repeat that?”

“He’ll be brewing Wolfsbane for Professor Lupin whilst he’s teaching”

Jade’s entire body was tense as she turned to stare at the potions Professor “you can make wolfsbane? All this time you’ve let him suffer and you knew how to?”

“Have you seen the ingredients list? It’s the most expensive potion known to man, I’m not made of money”

Jade looked like she was going slap him “you’ve seen the money I inherited, you know how much money I made on _top_ of that from the Ministry!- Jesus Christ Severus I’d have sold Potter House to fund it but you told me you  ** _couldn’t_** brew it, not that you were just a selfish dickhead”

McGonnaghal coughed to intervene “can we get back to the topic at hand please?”

The two younger teachers looked away from their glaring match and the transfiguration teacher continued.

“I trust that you won’t mind preparing the wolfsbane potion Severus, I know it’s a very delicate potion and takes a large quantity”

“Oh I’d be  ** _thrilled_** to help him out and waste all my free time giving that idiot a potion. Thrilled. Maybe I should forget the exact amount of Aconite and see how he takes it”

Albus raised an eyebrow “I understand there are some unresolved tensions Severus, but you’re all adults now-“

“Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black And James Potter were the bane of my existence when I was a student here, and now you want me to make my childhood bully a potion to help him out, with my own time- oh and you expect me to do it with a smile on my face? Well you can forget it. I’ll brew the stupid potion but I’m not happy about it, Lupin and Pettigrew weren’t as bad but they didn’t stop Black and Potter from making my life a misery. Those two were always stupid, bloody idiots -“

“Severus, I don’t think we need to go over this, we aren’t talking about James right now”

“No, thank god. Though I bet if he was still alive you’d have let him teach whatever he wanted, always got whatever he fucking wanted”

Severus was uncharacteristically angry and Jade just glared at him, voice cold.

“That’s my **dead twin brother** you’re talking about”

McGonnaghal audibly did a sharp intake of breath through her teeth and Severus had the good grace to look apologetic at least.

“Yes, right, of course. Yes, I will make the wolfsbane for Lupin”

There was a silence between the four of them before Jade got to her feet first “Right I’m going to go and… I don’t know. I’m going to go”

The rest of the weekend Severus had barely seen Jade. She had very, very pointedly said **_“I’m not angry at you”_** in a tone that told him she was furious and she had been so busy that he hadn’t seen much of her, and knew that she was meeting with two of her sixth year students on the Sunday morning so she had used that as an excuse to sleep in her own room away from him the night after their uncomfortable discussion in Dumbledore’s office.

They weren’t seeing her till around 11 so it wasn’t like she needed to get up early, he could tell that she was really not in the mood to see him.

\---

Obviously Jade loved teaching Harry, but he wasn’t one of her best students by any means. Her favourite students were the ones that really put the effort in, and reminded her of herself.

Neville Longbottom wasn’t seen as a great student by most of the teachers but he took after his father with Herbology, and was arguably one of the best in his year, though he wouldn’t believe it when she gave him the praise. Even if she hadn’t been friends with Frank and Alice, Jade would have still thought he was one of her favourite students.

Percy Weasley was the ‘odd one out’ in his family just like Jade had been, and she appreciated that it was harder to do the work and keep your head down and be seen as a geek than it was to just play along with the rest of the family.

Lucas Farris was the biological son of the man who had killed her friend, and who had nearly killed Jade herself a year ago, but he was an unbelievably hard worker, and she surprised herself with how much she appreciated the work he put in, and how she was able to separate him from McLeish.

A knock at the door made Jade glance up and she saw the two sixth year students that she had asked to come standing there and clearly baffled why the other was there.

Lucas Farris and Percy Weasley were in the same year but were in different houses and had spent little to no time together in the six years together at Hogwarts and clearly weren’t sure why they had both been asked to come to her office on a Sunday before lunch.

“Ah, come in and sit down you two”

Lucas looked slightly awkwardly out the side of his eye at Percy and Jade knew what he was thinking. His father, Daniel McLeish had murdered one of Percy’s uncles, though the redhead was unaware of who he was, and Jade gave them both a little smile as they sat down awkwardly.

“You two look a bit scared, you’re not in trouble, don’t worry. You’re actually here because you’re two of my best students in your year”

Lucas and Percy glanced at each other, clearly relaxing a little as Jade continued.

“Next year is your final year for both of you, and I’ve taught you both Herbology and now Defence Against the Dark Arts for a while as well. You are both the best students in your year for me, okay, and you are both very, very ambitious and you’ve both said you wanted to work with the Ministry. There are about six Ministry programmes for seventh year students, and obviously I have further connections there. I would really like to put both of your forward for positions either over summer, or Christmas or Easter next year. I want you both to have a think about which department you might be interested in and get back to me. I can’t guarantee that _any_ department will be willing to take a student on, some of them are a bit miserable, but I have a lot more sway than most teachers will in that sense. Though obviously if you wanted to work with the department that looks for underage animagi I might not be able to help you as they still hate me, but other than that I will do what I can”

Percy and Lucas looked equally surprised and the redhead blinked in confusion “You want to help us work at the Ministry?”

“Look, Percy, by the time I was two weeks into my final year the Auror Department had already decided to hire me and they hadn’t even come to me and asked me yet. That changed my life, and I was the youngest Auror ever. I was chosen largely because of the work I put in here as a student, and I think it deserves to be recognised in other students. If anyone else in your year asks for my help of _course_ I will help, but I’m coming to the two of you to offer this opportunity. If you want it?”

Both students nodded enthusiastically, looking thrilled and Jade clapped her hands together to signal that the conversation was over.

“Right, well good. Now, have a think and get back to me when you can. If you haven’t decided before the end of the term then just send me an owl over the summer at the Ministry, I live two minutes walk away so I’ll be able to collect it, okay?”

“Thanks Professor”

“Thank you!”

“Anytime, now go enjoy the sun you two”

\--

There had only been two weeks left of the term, and when the students were leaving the castle to board the train Jade had hugged Harry for a long, long time before grinning at him.

“You know you have to go to the Dursley’s for a week or two until Albus says I can get you, then you can stay with me, and when the Weasley’s are back from Egypt you can see them as well, alright. I will have a word with the Dursley’s to make sure they’re alright to you okay. Don’t warn them, I want to see them looking nervous”

That had made him laugh as he had headed down to the train to head back to the Dursely’s, grateful that he wouldn’t be there for long, and that most of his summer would be spent with his aunt, well, the preferable aunt of the two he had.

 

On his first full day back at the Dursley’s Harry felt very lonely. He had woken up missing Hogwarts, his friends and Jade. It had been another weird year, and he hadn’t really had a chance to sit down and process everything that had happened.

Harry was half heartedly unpacking his belongings in his horrible little bedroom when he glanced at the window and then stilled, seeing a familiar figure standing there on the other side of the road.

Jade was wearing a black wrap dress with small dark green polka dots on it, black shoes, and her hair down, lightly curly and moving gently in the breeze. She glanced at the window and grinned at him before crossing the road and walking up the Dursley’s front drive.

A second later Harry heard the doorbell go and hurried to the stairs, watching wide eyed from halfway down as Petunia opened the door to Jade, who was grinning with a particularly smug expression.

“Good afternoon Petunia”

Harry watched with amazement at his two aunts stared at each other over the entrance to the house, and realised that they couldn’t be more different.

Jade was beautiful, exuded confidence and power, and Petunia looked constantly nervous and was all tall, angular and bony.

Jade kept the falsely bright smile on her face “Are you not going to invite me in Petunia, you wouldn’t want to seem rude would you?”

Petunia faltered, before moving to the side to let Jade in, though Harry wasn’t sure if it was because she didn’t want the neighbours to see Jade, or that she was scared of her.

After closing the door Petunia glared at her “What are you doing here? You’re not welcome here”

Harry was surprised that Petunia seemed to know who Jade was, but then again she looked so much like James that it was easy enough to work out, and she had mentioned to Harry about having come with his dad to see the Dursley’s at one point.

“I don’t particularly want to be here to be honest but needs must”

Harry’s two aunts stared at each other for a few seconds before Jade pushed past Petunia and into the open plan living room where Vernon and Dudley were still eating breakfast whilst watching tv.

“Morning Dursley’s. Now, I gather that you’re aware I’m James’ sister Jade, and that that means I’m here to talk about Harry. You see you’ve got to look after him for a few weeks and then he will stay with me for the rest of the summer. Either two things are going to happen. Either you are going to be decent people and be kind to him, or I am going to come here and use so much magic that every single one of your neighbours will start to think that _you_ are the weird family around here I’m an Auror” that made Petunia flinch but Dudley and Vernon didn’t seem to know what it meant but she continued “And it means I work for the Wizarding government, and Harry is very well known in our world. If I find out that you haven’t been kind to him, I might just be forced to get some of my friends to come and do some magi around your house maybe. Or perhaps I’ll get some of the friends I made in the wizarding prison to come and lurk around the house”

Harry knew it was an empty threat of course, Jade didn’t have people she had met in Azkaban, and if she or anyone else came and did magic deliberately in front of Muggles they would be cautioned or possibly even end up in Azkaban.

Of course, the Dursley’s were in too much of a panic at her words to even think it through.

Jade put her hands in her pockets, looking around the room with a false, huge smile, seeing three stricken Dursley’s and a baffled looking Harry all staring at her.

“Well, this has been _lovely_. Now, I am going to be back in a few weeks to collect Harry, and in the meantime you are going to let Harry communicate with me by letter, I’m not too bothered if its an owl or Muggle post, but if I don’t hear anything at all, then I will be coming back. I’ve got some quite colourful friends from the Ministry who I’m sure will be happy to come for a walk around here with me. One of them always wears very elaborate robes, never Muggle clothes, and the other one has a magic eye that can roll back in his head and he can see through some walls with it. Another one is a half giant, and I also know a young lady who can change her appearance without even using her wand, so remember, if I hear nothing from my nephew, or he is not happy, then me and my group of weird, obviously different friends will go for a long walk around here before we pay you a visit so everyone will be looking out their window and see which house we’re going to. Now, Harry I’ll be waiting for your letter, and Vernon, Dudley, Petunia, enjoy your day”

Jade enjoyed being dramatic and so ended the sentence with a grin at Harry before apparating, leaving nothing but stunned silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup. Sirius is going to be heavily in the next few chapters as well as Remus, which I am looking forward to.  
> Mostly just Remus doing a smug grin looking between Jade and Snape.....


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry finally gets away from the Dursley's, but the fun doesn't last as Sirius makes a break for it....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy x

Remus was, as usual, in a fairly good mood, glancing around the apartment as he stepped out of the floo.

Jade was wearing a black hoodie and a pair of black leggings. She was barefoot with her hair in a messy bun and no makeup which showed off the freckles over her skin, and she was concentrating on a pan which was bubbling on the stove.

He wandered over to the open plan kitchen-dining room and sat down at the table and grinned at her as she swore under her breath at the saucepans.

“What are you cooking? It smells amazing”

“Just meatballs with spaghetti, there’s garlic bread in the oven. I was going to do a salad as well but we never eat half of it do we. Anyway, how have you been?”

“Same old, same old. Bet you’re glad it’s the summer holidays now, and you get some time off. It’s next week you get Harry isn’t it?”

“Yeah it’s nice having a break, not to worry you about September classes or anything. The teaching has been fine there has just been a lot going on what with the Chamber of Secrets and everything. I’m just glad to have some time to myself”

“Have you seen much of Severus?”

Jade was draining the spaghetti and looked at Remus with a slight glare “Subtle. No I haven’t really seen him since the last day of term, we had a bit of a disagreement”

“What was it about?”

She tipped the pasta between the two plates and started to spoon the meatballs and sauce on top “About you actually. Well, not you so much as the Wolfsbane. He’s always told me that he couldn’t make it for you, and then suddenly Albus tells me he’s able to make it for you all through next year. Doesn’t really seem right does it. We didn’t actually have a fight it was more of a disagreement and then I think he got the idea that I really, really didn’t want to speak to him”

Jade sat down at the other set place on the table, the garlic bread and two portions of spaghetti and meatballs levitating behind her and setting down on the table.

“Jade how much do you know about Wolfsbane?”

“I know it’s very expensive. I’ve got money Moony that’s not the point”

“Yes I know, but it’s also highly restricted”

“What do you mean?”

“The Ministry have incredibly tight restrictions on it. Probably because the ingredients are so close to a very lethal poison. If Severus had made it then he likely would have been brought in for questioning. Albus is pulling a lot of strings, and the Ministry have accepted that he’s doing some sort of investigative experiment, they won’t ask too many questions of Albus, you know that. If Severus makes it in the school it’s not going to cause as many questions as if it was in the house of a former Death Eater. You can’t be angry at him”

“I can and I will”

Remus just laughed, shaking his head as they slipped into conversation about something else.

When he left, Remus just smiled “Promise me you’ll make up with Snape?”

\--

In order to shut Remus up, she’d asked Snape to come over at the end of the week, and he had used the floo to come in, looking slightly reticent and trying to gauge her reaction.

Jade looked up through her eyelashes “Remus was here yesterday. He told me not to stay annoyed at you”

“Did he now. I assume he knows about us then?”

“He worked it out a while ago. He’s not going to tell anyone don’t worry”

Severus clearly didn’t know what to say and slipped his hands on to her waist, thumbs running over the exposed skin there, causing goose bumps on the cold skin.

“That wasn’t my main concern to be honest”

“Okay, well, I didn’t want you to worry about people finding out about us and I know you want this to be a secret and-” she hadn’t taken a breath through the words and he cut her off with a quick kiss.

“Stop. Calm down. I don’t have to like Remus to know he’s not going to say anything. He was an idiot in school, but he was the best of them. I’m just glad you’re willing to see me”

“I didn’t know the potion was so restricted. Sorry”

Severus tried not to look too obviously relieved “It’s fine”

“Do you want dinner? I’ve got loads in the fridge”

He gave her a kiss and moved over to the fridge, deciding he’d cook for her tonight.

 

They had drunk quite a few glasses of red wine and just fallen asleep in her bed, with Severus snoring beside her within a few minutes.

In the morning Jade felt surprisingly not too hungover which was a bonus, though as it was the summer the room was already quite warm, and it wasn’t helped by the fact that she could feel Severus was curled up against her back, spooning her and making her feel far too warm.

She squirmed a little to try and move away and she heard a low, sleepy mumble against her neck “Unless you’ve got a bit of time to spare, I’d stop rubbing yourself against me like that”

Jade smirked and arched her back in a very deliberate way that earned a groan from the body flush against her back and she turned over so that she was on her back, a very satisfied smirk on her face.

“I don’t know about you, but I can spare a bit of time?”

She was rewarded with a blistering kiss as his hand swept quickly under her t-shirt.

\--

Severus had gone back to Spinners End, leaving Jade in a fantastic mood as it was also the day she was off to get Harry.

She hadn’t bothered to forewarn the Dursley’s, enjoying the way that they had looked so panicked last time she had been there. The messages from her nephew had been through the muggle post, they went to a PO box in London that the Wizarding Post service collected and then sent on by owl.

Jade had dressed in a black sundress off the shoulder as it was a swelteringly hot day, and she was mildly aware that her scarring was very much visible but she liked the idea of the fear it might instil in Vernon and Petunia.

She apparated to a small patch of woods not far from Privet Drive and walked to the house, knocking loudly and plastering a fake grin on her face as Petunia answered.

“Morning, I’ve come for Harry”

The older woman gave her a look of absolute hatred and stepped aside as Jade let herself in anyway.

“His room upstairs? I’ll pack with magic-”

“We don’t have _magic_ in this house”

“Well if you let me use magic we can go in ten minutes, otherwise it will take a while to pack. Up to you how soon you want me gone?”

Jade twirled her wand between her fingers and Petunia just glared and stalked into the kitchen as Jade went up the stairs with a triumphant grin. It wasn’t normal to be so happy that someone hated her but it made her laugh.

Harry was sat on his bed reading a care of magical creatures book and looked up with a huge smile “Jade!”

He ran and gave her a huge hug that made her heart feel like it would burst.

“come on, you’re coming to my house”

“Now?”

“Dumbledore said you’ve been here long enough. Petunia looked like she wanted to murder me, but I’ll pack your stuff up, then you’re coming to my apartment in Diagon Alley until we go back to Hogwarts”

Harry looked like he was going to cry with happiness and Jade flicked her wand, his fairly meagre belongings filtering quickly into the trunk at the end of his bed, and with another swish it disappeared from the now empty room.

Jade held out her hand “Take a deep breath, side on apparition can make you feel a bit sick”

She didn’t bother to go and tell the Dursley’s they were leaving.

 

 

Harry had been fascinated by her apartment, as the only other wizards house he had really seen was the Weasley’s, and that was very, very obviously magical.

Jade’s apartment wasn’t cheap, even a teenager could see that. There was an enormous open plan living, dining and kitchen and it was modern and comfortable, huge windows overlooking Diagon Alley. She showed him in to the spare bedroom she had set up for him, and he glanced around with mild confusion for a second.

There was a big double bed with soft grey bedding, a black wooden desk against the right hand wall which was loaded with books on Quidditch, ‘Weird Wizarding History’, and books on the strangest plants and animals of the wizarding world.

On the right hand wall, opposite the large window, there was about 30 pictures in black frames on the white wall, and he glanced at them quickly.

They were all of him with his friends at Hogwarts and with the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and the rest were of his parents, with each other, at their wedding, at Hogwarts, ones with Jade, pictures of the twins when they were younger, with their parents, on their first day of Hogwarts, and one of them as toddlers, looking remarkably similar in a sunny garden.

Harry looked at Jade with wide eyes “Is this…?”

“Yeah, it’s your room now Harry. We can decorate it properly at some point. Now, I’ll be in the kitchen starting dinner alright?”

 

They had eaten dinner together and Harry was still wondering if it was all too good to be true as he had fallen asleep in his impossibly soft bed that night.

Jade had already been up when he finally woke up, and she was humming along to a song on the radio as she made pancakes, a huge grin on her face as he stumbled out sleepily.

“Morning. You clearly slept well”

“Sorry”

“No, don’t apologise, we’re in no rush today. I thought we could go out for the day?”

He grinned at that as she placed a huge stack of American style pancakes in front of him.

 

Jade had told him that they were going out for a big dinner in Covent Garden that evening to a Muggle restaurant, and as it was swelteringly hot, they had dressed and gone out for ice cream.

Florean Fortescue’s ice cream parlour was only a few steps away from Jade’s apartment in Diagon Alley and the two of them were sat on the chairs outside, and although Jade had aviator sunglasses on, quite a few people stopped to speak to her, and Harry quickly realised that she was probably just as famous in the wizarding world as he was.

They were talking about the Ireland Rugby team and eating mint chocolate chip when Jade noticed Harry’s eyes widen a little at something over her shoulder.

She turned quickly and saw 15 people heading right for them, half of them in Auror robes, and the rest she recognised from other departments from the Department of Mysteries, and the man at the front was Kingsley, looking incredibly worried.

Jade looked furious as they came over “I told you I wasn’t going to do any work whilst-“

Kingsley looked apologetic “There’s been an escape”

“From where?”

“Azkaban”

There was a long pause and Harry saw the way her body obviously tensed.

“Well that’s not possible”

“Unfortunately it is. We have an escaped prisoner, I need you to come in”

“No, I’ve got Harry, and it’s not Auror business anyway so-“

“I think you’ll change your tune when you hear who it is”

“McLeish, Bellatrix?”

“Worse. Sirius Black. He’s the prisoner who escaped”

The blood drained from Jade’s face and she felt her pulse quicken so it sounded like a blaring alarm in her head.

“My god... you’re serious aren’t you?”

“Unfortunately. The Minister wants to see you urgently and so does Scrimgeour”

Jade just nodded slowly and looked at her watch “right, well, the Weasley’s are back from Egypt so I can take him there but I’ve promised Harry we’re going out for dinner so you’ve only got me till about 5”

The Auror’s looked dumbfounded “but- this is... Sirius Black”

“Yeah and this is the nephew I’ve been waiting over a decade to see, so you can tell the minister I’m taking him to a friends house and then I’m around until 5, okay, I’ll back soon”

Jade took Harry’s hand and smiled calmly “remember, take a deep breath, side on apparition isn’t fun”  
He did as he was told and suddenly they were standing on the grass on the far side of the field from the Burrow.  
  
Harry looked at Jade and saw that she was shaking a little “I thought no one could escape from Azkaban?”

“Unfortunately so did I”

“Who was it? Something Black?”

Jade was falling into step beside him and had a look of obvious worry in her face, tension clear in her squared shoulders and pinch of her brow “Sirius, Sirius Black”

“Did you arrest him?”

“No, I was in St Mungo’s when he was caught but we have... I promise I’ll tell you about him later okay Harry, I promise?”

He took the hint that she wasn’t in the right headspace to discuss  
\--  
  
The Burrow was in a state of organised chaos, as they had only come back from Egypt a few days before and Ron barely seemed to register Jade and Harry in the kitchen, crawling around under the table.

“Have you seen scabbers?”

Jade looked baffled “Who the hell is scabbers?”

“He’s my rat, he’s been in the family for years. He always disappears when you’re here, does the same at Hogwarts”

Jade wasn’t paying enough attention to the conversation and just nodded distractedly “yes well, cats are all over me so I reckon they can sense I’m an animagus maybe”

“Yeah probably, look Ron, where are your parents? I need to have a word”

“Dunno, out the back maybe?”  
  
  
Harry had gone off to mess around with Ron and the twins as Jade had ventured out to the back garden where Molly and Arthur were magically putting some washing out on the line in the sunshine.

“Morning, uh, are you okay to keep an eye on Harry for a few hours? I’ve been called in?”

“Of course dear. Everything okay?”

“I have to speak to the Minister”

“What does Fudge want?”

“You haven’t heard then?”

“No...?”

“Sirius Black has escaped Azkaban”

Arthur needed a second for his brain to reboot at that information “I thought it wasn’t…. No one has ever…?”

“Yeah, no one has ever managed it before, and considering the fact that he was my friend, and I’ve been there myself, they want me to come in. I’ve said I’m only helping until 5pm, then I’m taking Harry out for dinner”

Molly managed an encouraging smile at Jade, who looked tense and nervous “You’ll find him, I’m sure of it. Now go, we’ll keep an eye on Harry for you”  
  
  
  
True to her word, Jade apparated into the Burrow at 4.58 pm. She was impossibly pale and looked like she was about to throw up. She was wearing her Auror robes and she was radiating power and authority, and her entire body was tense.

She had quickly spoken to Arthur in a quiet room, explaining what had happened. Somehow Sirius had escaped overnight, and the wizarding guards didn’t come in until about 9am, and as the dementors hadn’t alerted them to an escape, they hadn’t even known he was gone for another hour or so.

There had been no sign of him anywhere, and Jade had visited a particularly stressed Remus, and had looked around Azkaban, but she had nothing to add to the search.

  
  
Harry had got the hint that Jade didn’t want to talk about where she had been through the day, and what had happened, so they had taken the floo back to her apartment, quickly changed and headed out into Muggle London, going down to an American style restaurant in Covent Garden.

It was busy and Jade had clearly been before, ordering them a sharing plate of ribs, pulled pork, chips and nearly all of the sides.

She’d got Harry a milkshake and she was sipping on a beer

After a few minutes eating, Jade looked tired and stabbed her fork into some pulled pork “Harry I want to be honest with you, do you know who Sirius Black is?”

“No”

“Right... he’s the man who gave up your parents location to Voldemort... it’s his fault they aren’t here anymore”

Her fork was hanging in midair as he asked “You said you didn’t arrest him?”

“No it was whilst I was in Hospital myself after everything that happened. I always said when I started teaching in September that he was why I’d never assume anything about someone because of their House”

“What house was he in?”

“Gryffindor”

“But-“

“Plenty of bad people have been in all four houses Harry. Unfortunately as my father always used to say, to be evil sometimes takes a lot of courage. I’m not saying that Black is courageous but to play both sides and turn on your friends that takes a lot of balls... Black was in Gryffindor and his brother was in Slytherin, when it came down to it, it was his brother that was the truly honourable and courageous one..”

Jade felt a tug at the skin on her forearm at the memory of the unbreakable vow she had taken all those years ago with the terrified younger brother of her best friend as he begged for her help to try and stop the end of the world.  
  
They hadn’t discussed Sirius any more, and the rest of the dinner had been enjoyable, both of them needing the company for different reasons.

The next day Kingsley sent them an owl inviting the two of them over for a late breakfast and Jade had grinned, asking Harry if he wanted to go.

He’d been excited at the idea of spending time with more wizards, especially one who practically ran the Auror Department.

They had apparated a little way away from the house and as they waked up Harry asked “You’re good friends with Kinglsey?”

“Yeah, he was my boss technically”

“Are you two...?”

Jade laughed loudly “am I dating Kingsley or have I ever dated him? God no Harry. Firstly we’re just very good friends, but secondly there’s the fact that he’s married. To another man”

Harry blinked but nodded “ah”

“Yeah, that usually means illicit love affairs aren’t on the table between us. Xavier is his husband”

He smirked as they knocked on the door.  
  
  
  
After sitting with wide eyed interest over breakfast, Xavier had agreed to let Harry on his broom in the back garden as long as he supervised as it was incredibly expensive, and he knew Jade would kill him if Harry was injured.

That left Kingsley and Jade inside as she continued to eat another bacon sandwich and he tried to sound casual as he spoke “The wards were broken at Potter House today”

Jade looked up in surprise “sorry what?”

“Did you not hear?-“

“No I did but I... they aren’t the sort of wards you can just walk up and take down, only a few people know how to get through them. One is me, one is Remus, and he doesn’t go there as it’s too painful, and the other is...”

“Black?”

Jade leant her head back and closed her eyes in sheer frustration “the little shit would know. Only the three of us are alive that know how to access the House and only one of us is on the run”

“Why would he have gone there?”

“His parents kicked him out pretty much in his first year at Hogwarts, he spent summer and every Christmas and Easter at our house. The little git”

“The Aurors went there but by the time they made it, there was no one there”

“Oh fab”  
  
\--

  
_Sirius didn’t really know why he had gone to Potter House. It was a place that meant a huge amount to him, and the wards hadn’t really been a consideration._

_He knew within a few minutes that something wasn’t right, and had apparated away before the Auror’s had arrived._

_They hadn’t been able to get in but a sweep of the building with magic told them it was now empty._

_Still dressed in his tatty prison clothes from Azkaban and barefoot, Sirius had walked up the steps in the grand entrance looking around in astonishment._

_Whilst it was clearly no longer lived in, there was also very obviously several stasis charms on the place, as it looked simply like the family had gone away for a while, rather than the fact it hadn’t been lived in since Jade and James had turned 18._

_Jade’s room was beside where James’ had been, and both doors were open._  
Sirius stood there between the two of them, feeling as though he had been transported back in time.  
Jade’s room had a duck egg blue on the walls and a scattered arrangement of frames of photos on the far wall. Sirius didn’t have to go in to see what they were, he’d seen them all enough times to know what face was in each and every photo up there.

_The bed was large and on the left of the room, black headboard against the wall, and the bedding was still the charcoal grey set it had been on the day she had left._

_The bedside table still had a stack of books, all with bookmarks in which showed him she’d been reading multiple texts at once._

_The wardrobe and drawers were closed and presumably empty, but it held so much of what made Jade who she was that it made him feel a little sick._

_There was a set of two medium sized glass vases on the windowsill, both of which were full of various shells from holidays the family (and after first year Sirius, and then sometimes Peter or Remus too) had taken to beaches across the world and that she had brought home.  
The Prefect badge was still on top of the chest of drawers, along with a bundled Gryffindor scarf and an Ireland rugby top thrown over a chair beside an Ireland Quidditch hoodie._

_James’ room was different, a dark grey-blue on the walls, no carpet on the floor and instead varnished floorboards, and the room was a general mess. There were two single beds at opposite sides of the room- the Potter’s had told Sirius he could have his own room, they had more than enough, but he and James had always been used to sharing- both of them barely half made, the sheets, duvet and pillows all askew._

_The bedding didn’t even match on either bed and had clearly been grabbed and thrown on, and resembled much of the rest of the room which was an organised mess._

_On the floor was odd socks, an open broom maintenance kit, a book on code breaking half kicked under a bed beside a rather high pile of converse and trainers, and a Gryffindor emblem of a lion roaring silently on an enchanted poster. There was odds and ends scattered over the room which was the complete opposite of Jade’s, but similarly showed exactly who he and James had been._

_There was a book on werewolf rights and legislation on Sirius’ bed that they’d intended to read but had never managed to finish- though Jade had read it cover to cover twice._

_There was a tiny marble figurine of a stag on top of some drawers that was about three inches high, and was charging around happily even after all these years with a dog one. They were a present from Jade one Christmas, and it had taken her several weeks to get them to both move correctly and she’d needed Peter’s help to stop them from attacking each other and chipping the marble._  
  
  
When she and Harry had gone back to her apartment, Jade had ignored the large pile of letter and notes, largely from the Ministry, and had gone straight into her bedroom, sitting on the bed and staring out the window vacantly as she heard Harry turn the shower on in the bathroom.

Jade glanced at the small black marble jaguar that was sound asleep on her windowsill as usual, basking in the sunshine in a remarkably lifelike way, front paws dangling on the edge.

Even though it was a present from Sirius she physically hadn’t been able to ever get rid of it.

Thinking back to when he had given it to her, in their last year at Hogwarts, Jade wondered if even then he had been willing to have James killed to gain Voldermort’s praise. Jade still couldn’t believe that he had done it, and thinking about how well he had lied to her made her physically sick.  
  
_It was early morning and there were very few people at breakfast, and Jade barely looked up from her book as Sirius sat down heavily opposite her._

_“Alright Jade?”_

_“What do you want?”_

_“Can’t I just do something nice for you?”_

_“You can But the last time you were allegedly being nice you managed to break six of my ribs and blinded me in one eye for three days”_

_Sirius had the good grace to look suitably apologetic “Yes well this is to say sorry about that. I mean, you’re all mended up now aren’t you”_

_Jade just eyed him suspiciously and closed her book slowly “right, well get on with it, I am trying to study here”_

_“God you’re such a nerd. Right here it is”_

_He reached in his pocket and pulled out the squirming jaguar etched in black marble and placed it on the table._

_It stretched lazily before padding around on the table and walking between plated and cups as Jade looked at him with surprise._

_“You made me one too?”_

_Sirius shrugged as if it wasn’t a much more complicated bit of magic than he’d anticipated and hadn’t taken him weeks to sort “Nah it’s nothing. You’re one of us aren’t you, so seemed right you have one. I’d do one for Moony and Wormtail but neither are exactly thrilled with the forms they take so it can just be in spirit eh”_

_Jade still looked surprised as the marble jaguar sloped back towards them and into the palm of her hand._

_“I didn’t make them for you and James to make you think that I-“_

_“You’re one of us, okay. You might not do the pranks with us and you might be a goody two shoes, but judging by how much you’ve done for us I think it’s safe to say you’re a Marauder, okay. At the very least, you, me and James, we’re a team, right, us against the world!”  
Jade looked at the marble big cat which had now curled up sleepily against her warm palm and then at Sirius’ eager grinning face “yeah, **us against the world** ”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This should have been put up a few days ago but it's taken me about three days to do a job application for a dream job I will never ever get!  
> Loving all the comments and kudos- thanks guys!


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, too much going on at the moment!

Jade Greenlake didn’t like Cornelius Fudge, that was a fairly well known and accepted fact.

In his first year as Minister for Magic, Jade had attempted to get him to broaden the rights of those affected by werewolves – wizards and witches who were bitten, not full werewolves like Fenfir Geyback- and he hadn’t exactly agreed. It wasn’t normal for a young Auror to go to the Minister and demand something but it was something Jade was incredibly passionate about, and it had ended with something close to a screaming match in the Minister’s office.

They hadn’t really had much need for lots of interaction over the intervening years, though Jade had been a part of every single lobbying group for Werewolf rights, continuing the work that her parents had started. That was one of the major works that Euphemis and Fleamont Potter had been working on in the last year before they died. They had never explicitly said to Jade or any of the Marauders that they knew Remus was a werewolf, but their interest in werewolf rights had begun right about the time the twins had found out themselves.

Jade knew full well why Fudge wanted to see her, as the Ministry was still no closer to finding Sirius Black, even though he had been missing now for nearly a week. She had no information, and if she knew where he was then Jade would have gone and killed him herself, but the Ministry were at such a loss that she had been called in, against her wishes.

Harry had gone to the Weasley’s house for the day and was going to stay over, more than happy to see his friend and his family, as he was aware that she had to go into the Ministry.

 

Jade was wearing a dark red dress that came to her knees and strappy black sandals, hair in a plait over her right shoulder and she was mildly glad to be inside, as it was another swelteringly hot summer day outside.

She would rather not be sat in the Minister for Magic’s office though, leg crossed over each other and rather sour expression on her face as Fudge sighed, clearly wanting not to bother with small talk.

“Well, you know why you’re here”

“Sirius Black. I’ll assume you’re no closer to finding him”

“No. Not exactly. You are still refusing to help?”

Jade raised an eyebrow across the large oak desk “I am not _refusing_ Minister, I have my nephew to look after. Also, you have an entire Ministry at your disposal, I would think one more person won’t make a difference in the search”

“You knew him best”

She scoffed slightly “I thought I did. It turns out I didn’t know him at all, or my brother would be alive wouldn’t he”

“Well, I suppose you’re right. You have to understand that I have to ask you about him. You knew Black and you have also been in Azkaban yourself”

“Yes, I remember you were one of the people who called for me to be imprisoned at the time weren’t you”

Fudge visibly swallowed and tried to move on quickly “Do you have any idea how he could have escaped?”

“No”

“You were there yourself, did you ever see a way to escape?”

“Look, I’m not being funny, but some seriously clever dark wizards have been in there for decades and have never as much as attempted an escape. Do you really think you can just open the gates and walk out?”

“Did you ever get the idea-“

“Don’t embarrass yourself. Did I ever get an idea there was a way to escape? Of course I didn’t. In case you’ve forgotten, I left and then spent a decade working for the ministry, I might have mentioned it during that time”

“I had to ask”

“You didn’t”  
There was a pause and Jade pushed herself to her feet “well, if that’s all I’ve got better things to be doing”

“I’ll remind you that I am the minister for magic, you can’t just decide that this conversation is over”

Jade felt exhausted all the way to her bones and didn’t bother with niceties “I’ll remind you that I didn’t vote for you, nor am I currently working for the Ministry whilst I have Harry. So yes, I think I will go”

Fudge clearly wanted to shout at her but Jade was already leaving, and he didn’t know what to say.  
Jade Greenlake had no interest in politics but he knew full well that if she announced tomorrow that she was going to run for Minister, that he’d never ever stand a chance against her.  
  


It was still early in the day, and Jade decided to kill two birds with one stone and head down to one of the lower floors to have a conversation she really didn’t want to have.

Jade didn’t want to see Moody but she knew that this wasn’t a conversation to have with a letter via an owl, and she needed his help anyway.

She took the lift down to the right floor and took the familiar route to the Auror Offices, a route she had taken practically daily for years and years.

There were pictures of Sirius Black everywhere, the manic look in his eyes from his Akzaban picture making her skin crawl and she didn’t even have to read the ‘wanted’ notice below it. They were on every wall on Diagon Alley and she had it memorised by now.

As usual the entire department was buzzing with noise and activity, and she slunk her way in to the main office area. Thankfully in the mess of trying to find an escaped fugitive it looked like most people weren’t wearing their robes, so Jade slipping through in a dress wasn’t too noticeable.

Moody was talking rapidly with some first year recruits on the other side of the open office area and as if by some sixth sense his magic eye rolled over to where Jade was standing, and she motioned towards the corridor where the senior aurors had their offices.

He got the gist and finished his conversation quickly, sending them off and limping down to the corridor where Jade met him with a half hearted smile.

“Can I have a word? I’d say lets use my office but I gather it’s probably got cobwebs all over it by now”

“I think it’s being used as a shrine by some of the trainees”

Jade grinned and followed Moody down to his office, which frankly probably got about as little use as hers did and she wasn’t even working at the Ministry any more.

They sat at either side of the desk and he sighed “What’s wrong?”

“Well, nothings wrong. I just had a fascinating chat with Fudge, he thinks I might know some secret way to get out of Azkaban that I neglected to mention before-hand. We never did get along much”

“he’s not worth the bother really”

“I needed o speak to you about something and I don’t want you to lose your cool with me about it. Promise?”

He merely grunted in agreement but it was enough.

“With Sirius Black on the loose, I’ve been worried. We don’t know anything about who he was aligned with, which Death Eaters he was in contact with, we just don’t know anything. We know he went to Potter House but that is all we know. I don’t even know why he was there, there’s nothing really there. I’m worried he’s planning something, and my own house is under several layers of protection, but it isn’t me that he would maybe go after. Uh, I still have Augusta’s house covered”

Moody frowned, trying to work it who she meant before realisation flickered over his face “Augusta Longbottom? Frank’s mother?”

“Yes”

“You’ve had them under protection this whole time?”

“She’s not happy about it but they were my friends, Frank and Alice didn’t deserve what happened to them, and I was always slightly worried about their son, Neville. They were targeted because the Death Eaters thought that they knew how Harry had defeated you know who, and that if there were some we didn’t catch...”

“We got them”

Jade’s eyes were soft and sad “well the ones we know about. We never even knew about Sirius until it was too late”

Moody didn’t have a response to that and she coughed and moved slightly to try and ease the tension.

“Ah, right, well I actually need your help doing it for someone else. It worked well last time and despite everything I trust your judgement, though I don’t think you’ll be happy about who it is for”

“Go on”

“The Farris family”

Moody looked blank and there was no glimmer of recognition there and she carefully met his eyeline as she continued.

“Daniel McLeish has a wife who left him and his son is a student of mine. She remarried a muggle and they took his surname - Farris. Lucas Farris is the boys name”

“You want to offer protection for McLeish’s family. Why?”

“Because she ran off and married a muggle and raised her son to be a very nice young man. We don’t know why Sirius escaped but I’d rest easier knowing that The Longbottom’s and the Farris family are safe at night. There’s a chance Sirius could try and follow in his cousins footsteps with going after the Longbottoms, and if he works out that the Farris family are anything to do with McLeish then, well, he might want to do his dirty work for him”

“And this kid, what’s his name?”

“Lucas Farris”

“Lucas. What’s he like?”

“He’s a very nice young boy. He’s terrified of what his father was, and I looked in his mind and he’s just a kind young boy. He’s one of my best students, him, Percy Weasley and Neville Longbottom are my best across the years. I wanted to ask you partially because I need your help setting the wards, but I also... well... I wanted to ask you first. After all it’s the son and ex wife of the man who killed either Gideon or Fabian”

In true Moody fashion he just sort of stared at her for a long time, saying nothing whilst thinking before leaning forward on his barely used desk.

“Do you really think I’m that bitter and twisted that I’d let the life of a child be endangered because of a grudge?”

“Well you have barely spoken to me in a decade so-“ she shrugged as if it wasn’t the most hurtful thing in the world “anyway. If that’s all I need to get going-“

“Jade”

She stopped and he clearly wanted to say something else but stopped himself and instead muttered “look after yourself, oh and say hello to your boyfriend for me”

She rolled her eyes “Oh piss off”

\--

 

Severus was sat in his house in Spinners End reading the Daily Prophet and saw Jade’s name in a small article about halfway through the paper:

 _Jade Greenlake offers fathers research diaries to St Mungo’s research wing._  
Fleamont Potter (known as Monty) was a well known inventor and had been working on a better Dragon Pox vaccine before his and his wife Euphemia’s death. Three weeks ago we reported that the St Mungo’s research wing had decided to look into Dragon Pox again as the treatment that has been around for over 150 years is not curing all cases, and many are still dying from the disease.  
This week Jade Greenlake gave the research department her fathers extensive diary notes on the disease, in the hope that they would help.  
Healer Hawthorne, who is head of the research into Dragon Pox told us ‘these diaries are astounding. Monty Potter was way ahead of his time, there are things in here we never would have considered, and it will undoubtably save lives’.  
Jade Greenlake returned our request for a comment with a short statement ‘my parents dedicated their lives to trying to help other people, dad would be thrilled his work is helping even after all this time’  
  
Whilst Harry had still been at the Dursley’s Severus had helped Jade to clear out some old boxes of her parents things and they had found the research diaries. Severus hadn’t realised how extensive Monty and Euphemia Potter’s research had been on such a variety of topics, from hair products, to werewolf rights to Dragon Pox. It had been Severus’ idea to give them to the recently re-opened research wing and he was glad to see she had followed through.

About ten minutes later the Floo whooshed and Jade appeared, looking stressed but immediately relaxing at the sight of him.

“Morning. You okay?”

“Had to see Fudge, don’t even ask, it was as shit as you expected it to be. He’s an idiot. Saw Moody about helping me put protection up for Lucas Farris and his family, we’ll do it in the week if his mum is okay with it. I’ll visit them tomorrow maybe. Harry’s at the Weasley’s until tomorrow”

Severus was still sat in the armchair and took her hand, tugging Jade down to him and kissed her gently “So I’ve got you all to myself for all this time, I wonder what we can do to fill the time?”  
  


It was about five minutes later that they had made their stumbling, tangled limbs between kisses up the stairs, landing on the bed.

Jade had missed him, she wouldn’t deny that. It wasn’t like she could have him over whilst Harry was around, and the stress from the past day meant that all she wanted was Severus, and now she was here, Jade was overwhelmed by how much she missed him.

She was undressed in record time and groaned at his touch, making Severus laugh gently “eager are we?”

Jade was going to say something but as his mouth was suddenly on her as a finger slid inside and her mind went fantastically blank.

She clenched the sheet below her so hard that she vaguely worried it might rip and she could practically feel his self satisfied smirk on her skin and really wanted to say something to stop him being so smug but he had moved his finger slightly and she came apart, back arching, muscles clenching and vision going white for a second.

When she came back down to earth Jade could see Severus looking incredibly smug still, leaning on his hands over her now

“Enjoyed that did we?”

Her usually sharp mind offered no witty comeback and she just simply grabbed his t-shirt and pulled him up the bed, giving him a rough kiss.

Severus groaned into her mouth and quickly shrugged out of the t-shirt and fumbled with his belt buckle, never breaking the kiss.

Her voice was quiet in the kiss but he heard it still “god I missed you”

“Missed you too. Miss you whenever you’re not with me. I love you”

Severus had managed to push his trousers and boxers down in a hasty rush and rolled onto his back to easier kick them off and he manoeuvred Jade so that she was on top.

There would come a time in years to come when Severus was being tortured by Voldermort that the sight of Jade in that moment would be what kept him sane.

It wasn’t because of how much of a turn on the sight was, it was just how much he realised he loved her.  
  
  
Later they were dressed again and had lunch sat on the sofa downstairs, with Severus at the end and Jade leaning back against him, her back against his chest.

“Why Jade?”

She glanced around at him “Why what?”

“No I meant why did they call you Jade? Just seems a very unique name when they had James as your twin”

“You realise what my parents names were right? Hardly usual”

“True”

“My mothers engagement and wedding rings were made of Jade rather than diamonds. Mum loved the stone and dad went all the way to Croatia to have them goblin made for her. She wanted to name me after what she saw as my dads act of true love for her, and James was named after someone in the family, there have been a lot of James Potter’s”

“That’s quite sweet actually. They really loved each other”

Jade leant back against his warm body and nodded “oh yeah. Met at Hogwarts and we’re inseparable the rest of their lives. Died within a few hours of each other. James reckoned they couldn’t live apart”

Severus murmured in agreement as he ran a hand through her curly hair “that’s the sort of relationship that can weather anything”

“Well, we’ve survived a lot haven’t we. Still here aren’t we”

Severus nodded slowly, thoughts clearly elsewhere as he continued to run a hand through her hair.

 

 

Jade was good at everything, that was a fairly well known fact. She might not be excellent at legillimens and occlumency, but she’d picked it up quickly. She’d easily got through herbology and Defence Against The Dark Arts, transfiguration had been easy for her, charms had been full marks without really trying, and even care of magic creatures had been a 90% grade in her final exam. Jade had been quite good at potions but she would be the first to admit that without all the help she’d had from Severus she never would have done as well as she had.

So she was diligently following the instructions that Severus was giving her, helping prepare the base for the Wolfsbane.

They couldn’t actually make it fully until the term started up again, but the initial potion was relatively easy, and wouldn’t be detected by the Ministry, and would survive bottled with a stasis charm.

They were in his brewing room at the back of the house as Jade carefully sliced some ingredients as he had instructed her when Severus suddenly broke the silence.

“Do you want to get married?”

She was so startled by the question that the knife slipped and suddenly there was a huge bloom of blood, a cut extending from the underside of her left middle finger, down the length of it and across her palm to the heel of it.

“Ah shit!”

The knife was incredibly sharp to cut through the tails and there was a surprising amount of blood spilling on to the wooden chopping board and she scooped up her jumper and pressed it on her palm, stemming the blood a little.

“You’ve got to warn a girl when you say something like that”

“I’ll take that as a no”

“Huh?”  
“Doesn’t bode well when you say do you want to get married and the girl tries to cut her hand off”  
Jade smirked, but still looked concerned “was that you actually asking to get married?”

“No. Well, yes. Well, no”

“Insightful”

Severus moved and took her hand, muttering a spell to stop the bleeding and stitch the skin back together.

As an Auror Jade already knew the spell but had been so thrown by what he’d said that it hadn’t occurred to her to use it.

“I wasn’t going to get down on one knee, calm down. I was just wondering what you want, in the future”

Jade glanced at her palm which was covered in dried blood and still in his own much larger hands, before looking up at his questioning expression.  
“I don’t know why you’re suggesting any of this at the moment, you still don’t want the outside world to know we’re together, you think it might give it away if you put a ring on my finger?”

“Jade, it isn’t like that-“

“Well, it is. It’s fine, I understand”

She gave a tight, forced smile

“I wanted to know what you... expect... in the future”

“I don’t expect anything from you Severus, you’ve always been a bit of a mystery to me”

“I have?”

She nodded “well then you come out with asking if I want to get married? You’ve not exactly ever mentioned that before. I don’t know what you want either”

Severus squeezed her mended hand gently and let it drop, still standing incredibly close to each other and his voice quiet with a hint of trepidation and embarrassment.

“I want you. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. I’d want you, and...” he trailed off and touched the finger beside her little finger on her left hand “maybe a ring there. Maybe a child...”  
Jade looked beyond baffled by his words.

“I don’t even know which bit to address first here Sev. Let’s rewind a bit. You want to get married and you want a child?”

“Yes”

Jade was horribly aware of the close proximity between them and moved back a little and sat back down on her chair as Severus leant back against the counter top, obviously nervous.

“You don’t want the world to know we’re together, and I can’t have children. So clearly I can’t give you what you want”

“For someone so intelligent you really can be stupid sometimes”

“Thanks...?”

“I don’t just want to get married and have a child, I want those things with you. Without you I don’t have any interest in either, frankly”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooooh!
> 
> Thanks for reading and the love wonderful people!


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is an odd one, but we sort of need to know a bit more about McLeish's old family/The Farris family for.........reasons..................

Severus immediately regretted saying anything, and was waiting for her to just laugh at him, tell him to fuck off and leave.

What he hadn’t expected was the warm smile to spread over her face as she wound her arms around the back of his neck and she nodded.

“Ask me again when we have captured Sirius, ask me when I can focus on one thing, and then my answer will be yes, but not before then, okay?”

He blinked in obvious confusion “Are you serious?”

Jade seemed surprised by his stunned reaction, though she was surprised by her own casual agreement.

“It’s not what I expected you to say but then when it came out of your mouth I just though _‘yes’_. Look, I love you, and there isn’t anyone else, and there won’t be anyone else, so being with you, for the rest of my life- well, I’m not going anywhere so why not make it legal?”

Severus took a second or two to process what she had said.

“You’re being serious? You’re not going to make some sort of joke about it?”

“No, actually. When I was in Hogwarts, Frank Londbottom said I was always going to end up back with you, that no matter what, I’d find my way back to you”

He kissed her, heart so full that he thought he could burst “I always knew I liked him”

-

_Jade was in her final year at Hogwarts and by now very adept at sneaking around the castle, though the cloak and stealing the map from James usually helped things._

_It was after curfew but as a Prefect she wouldn’t have been questioned anyway._

_Frank Longbottom was sat on the balcony at the owlery already, waiting for her._

_“Alright Potter, it’s not as cold as I thought it was going to be tonight”_

_She nodded and sat on the other side of the balcony, facing each other and their backs against the sides, legs beside each other._

_Frank was a fantastic friend, and Jade really did cherish him. There was absolutely no romantic notions between them, she was more likely to sleep with Sirius than Frank -and that would **never**_ happen _\- and he in turn saw her like a sibling he’d never had._

_Jade’s parents were sick, and she knew they were going to die but she frankly didn’t want to talk about it. Everyone was treating her differently and it made her feel a bit sick, or at the least they were giving her the ‘poor Jade’ looks. Frank had listened to her adamant comment she didn’t want to think Or talk about it, and instead he’d managed to smuggle in cigarettes and a lighter, and they would meet in the owlery some evenings and share a cigarette or two, and talk about anything else except her parents impending death, and she was so incredibly grateful for it._

_Frank had an older cousin that sent the cigarettes to the owl post office in Hogsmeade and then he picked them up on weekend visits. It was genius frankly._

_They were sat in the moonlight each with a cigarette and chatting easily._

_After a while Jade lit up a second cigarette and blew out the smoke into the sky “you’re going to marry Alice aren’t you?”_

_Frank grinned “am I that obvious? Yes I think I will. She’s great isn’t she?”_

_Jade nodded truthfully, she really did like Alice and they were great together. “She is. Even your mum likes her and she’s not what I’d call easy to please”_

_“You think James and Lil will get married?”_

_“Oh yeah. He’s pretty much told me so. I’m just grateful he’s got someone so he doesn’t try and live with me after we graduate”_

_Frank snorted and took the lighter off her “what about you and Severus?”_

_Jade let out a mouthful of smoke “he’s going to join the Death Eaters, you know that. And we’re not together anymore anyway”_

_“He’ll always be the one though won’t he, for you?”_

_Jade looked like she wanted to deny that but knew there wasn’t much point with Frank._

_“I’m going to be an Auror, and he’s going to be a Death Eater, it’s not going to happen”_

_“People change”_

_“Not really”_

_“He’s joining because he thinks he has something to prove, you know that just as well as I do. You two have been so close and your lives are so intwined, id be amazed if you don’t end up back together at some point”_

_“You think I’m destined to give it all up and have a million children?”_

_He smirked “no, knowing you you’ll still be kicking everyone’s ass at 9 months pregnant. You’re not one for the simple life Jade, mark my words, Sev is your end and your beginning, you’ll always find your way back to him”_

_“You’re such a ridiculous old romantic Frank”_

-

 

Severus understood why she wanted to wait until Sirius Black was caught to really lay down a serious commitment, her mind was incredibly distracted, and there was an awful lot to sort out. She had to tell Harry that she was dating the teacher he hated before they could exactly get married.

Neither of them were really traditional people who actually saw the point in marriage much, neither helped by their impressions of their parents marriages. Severus had grown in with parents in a horrible marriage where his father drunk heavily and was verbally and physically abusive to both Severus and his mother, so he hadn’t previously thought much of marriage.

Jade’s disinterest in marriage had come from a very different viewpoint, in that her parents one had been so perfect that she didn’t think she would ever be able to quite measure up. They had been the perfect example of a couple who truly loved each other totally, completely and nothing could have ever come between them.

James hadn’t seemed bothered about getting married and comparing him and Lily to their parents, but Jade had always been worried she might not match up to Euphemia and Monty Potter.

Sirius Black was a constant side thought in Jade’s mind. She tried to keep how much of a threat he might be under from Harry. She didn’t want to lie to him and if he asked then she would be honest, but the less her realised the true threat of Sirius and how much Jade was trying to protect him and others, the better.

After leaving Severus after their talk and taking Harry back to her apartment, Jade had tried her best to be as present as she could for her nephew. This was the first summer holidays he had been with her and she didn’t want him to be worried about the fact a murderer might be out to get him, after having caused his parents deaths.

They had spent a few rather lazy days together in her apartment and around Muggle London but she wasn’t sure still how to even broach the subject of Severus.

It was at the end of that week that Harry had an owl from Ron saying that Charlie was visiting and they were going to have a big Quidditch match with the Weasley’s if he wanted to come. Jade had encouraged him to go, explaining that she would try and come once she had done her work, but that it might take a few hours. He gathered it was Auror work and had just asked “About Sirius Black?” and Jade had nodded noncommittally “Sort of. Just trying to keep some people safe, just in case”

So she had dropped Harry at the usual chaos of the Burrow in the morning and apparated away.

 

Moody was already at the meeting point when Jade got there, trying to gauge the older mans demeanour but he was his usual stoic, sulky self.

“Morning, thanks for doing this”

He shrugged “It’s fine”

Jade started to head up the little path at a slow pace and he limped beside her as she took a paper bag from a bakery out “I brought blueberry muffins”

Moody blinked but took the offered muffin with his free hand and grunted a thanks.

Jade smirked knowingly as she ate her own one. He was a moody bastard sometimes but she knew a freshly baked muffin in the morning really was the way to his heart.

They were truly in the countryside, most of the surrounding houses were farms or converted barns, and there were gorgeous fields all around, covered in the warm summer sunshine.

It was unusually hot that summer for England, and they had apparated thankfully into a little path at the end of a patch of woodland that ran along the end of a small dairy farm that was covered in shade.

“It’s just up the end here”

He said nothing, though she noticed that he finished the muffin as he followed her, stopping beside her when she found the house.

The house was lovely, and they stood to take it in for a second. It was one of the last houses on the lane and there was a small road at the front and then fields for miles. It was an old stone house that was medium sized but looked cosy, with flowers on the edge of the path to the low cobblestone garden wall with the pale blue gate that matched the front door.

Jade glanced at Moody with a smile “beautiful house isn’t it. Didn’t you grow up near here?”

He huffed “about 40 minutes away”

They were silent for a second and Jade glanced at her friend with an encouraging smile “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. I can manage on my own if you think it will be too hard for you?”

“Nah. It’s not the lads fault his father is a prick is it?”

“That’s the spirit”

They were still talking when the familiar figure of Lucas Farris came around the side of the house, clearly from the back garden, holding a wicker basket with apples in it and looking baffled at the two aurors at the end of the garden path.

He was wearing grey shorts and a black t-shirt, eyes wide and he called around to the back of the house “Uh, Dad? You might want to come around the front”

A minute later a tall man in his early 50’s came around. He had flecks of grey in his light brown hair, and there were a few wrinkles in the corners of his eyes, and some freckles across his cheeks. He had mud on his hands and wiped it down the shorts he was wearing as he smiled at Jade and Moody.

“Ah, I guess you’re from the Ministry then? Y’ don’t exactly fit in around here? Emmy said you were coming today, come on in, we were just in the orchard, I’ll get the kettle on”

He disappeared inside the cottage, leaving the door open and Lucas looked at them with a bewildered look.

“Uh, professor Greenlake…. What are you doing here?”

“Your mum said we could come Lucas, call me Jade, we’re not at school now dear”

He nodded awkwardly and they all went inside, Moody sharing a quick glance at Jade before they went inside.

 

The kitchen and dining room was large, open plan, and very cosy. There was some food simmering on the hob and Jade had her first glimpse of Emmeline Farris. She was maybe in her late 40’s, with shoulder length dark blonde hair, lightly tanned skin and she was small and petite. Jade could see that Lucas looked much more like his mother than his biological father.

Emmeline smiled warmly from the cooker as they came in “Do you want tea?”

Jade nodded and Moody replied with a gruff “yes, please, two sugars. Can I sit down?”

Jade tried to hide her incredulous expression at Alastor’s behaviour, the politeness was a bit out of character and she didn’t think she’d ever seen him drink tea.

Emmeline waved at the long dining table “Yes of course”. She flicked her wand and the tea started making itself and her husband came back in and smiled at them as he sat on the other side of the table “Hi, I’m Elijah Farris but call me Eli, Lucas seems a bit star struck having you both at the house”

A second later Lucas Farris came into the kitchen and did indeed look a bit star struck and sat at the other end of the very long table as his mum levitated the tea over to the table.

Jade watched out the corner of her eye as Alastor sipped the tea and she began to explain what was going on.

“Uh, right, I think we should explain why we are here. I couldn’t say too much in my letter in case someone intercepted it. We, um, well, I wanted to put your house under protection. Obviously as a family people don’t know about the connection to your ex-husband, I didn’t even know until Lucas told me. We need your permission to do it though”

Lucas looked worried “you think Sirius Black is going to come after us?”

Moody answered for her “No. We don’t think Black is going to come after your family, but Jade likes to be prepared for every eventuality, even the ones that will never happen”

She slipped an unimpressed expression at Alastor who hid a self satisfied grin behind a tea cup as he took a sip.

“Uh, yes, thanks for that. I’ll level with the three of you, Lucas is old enough to be involved in this. We know very little about Sirius Black as a Death Eater, as you can imagine. No one knew he was even with them until it was too late. We don’t know why he has chosen now to escape. Maybe it was his first opportunity or maybe he’s been planning for something, but I can’t rule anything out. Emmeline, you left Daniel McLeish and remarried a Muggle, which doesn’t both most people, but if McLeish knew… well, I can’t _guarantee_ anything It isn’t fair to knowingly leave the three of you in potential danger when I have taken measures to protect other people”

Emmeline and Eli glanced at each other and she looked puzzled “I don’t know what to say. I wasn’t the best student at Hogwarts but I know protecting a family of 3 in a house this size isn’t easy magic, and this is about my ex husband who, well, he killed one of the twins you both worked with, didn’t he”

It wasn’t a question as they all knew he’d done the deed, and Jade was about to answer when Moody spoke first.

“You had already left him and handed over information about his activities to the Ministry by the time that happened. Jade was there when the attack happened, and she was the one who McLeish attacked just over a year ago, and she is the one who has been teaching young Lucas here for a year. If she doesn’t hold it against you then neither do I. I think we’ve all had regrettable people we’ve dated in the past”

Jade smirked slightly, wondering if he was referring to himself or Jade in that sentence and she sat forward, hands clasped together on the table.

“Look, Emmeline, Lucas, Eli, please let us do this. We will never know for sure if we caught all the Death Eaters and that is on our shoulders. The chances are very small but I won’t sleep at night knowing you are potentially in danger from someone I didn’t catch a decade ago. Lucas is one of my best students, and I’ve got enough to worry about without having to wonder if someone has come here and done something. Please, I know it’s a bit mental but just let us do this. It won’t affect your lives day to day, and no offence Eli, but as a Muggle you wouldn’t be able to protect yourself against Death Eaters with a grudge. Please, let us do this”

Eli spoke first “Emmy, she’s got a point. We should take their help”

Lucas was looking shell shocked still but nodded “Mum, you know dad is right”

 

The protection spells were long and incredibly complex. Jade could have done it by herself but with Mad Eye it took just over an hour. On her own it might have taken all day to layer the spells and weave them together. It wasn’t as good as having a secret keeper, but it wouldn’t allow anyone unwanted to come in to the property on the grounds, going as far as the gate around the front of the property and up to the end of the orchard at the back.

Jade had similar protection all over her apartment, and Moody had helped her do that too, back when she had first brought the place years ago. Alastor Moody was a great fighter, a strong leader, a great tactician, but at the heart of it all he really was a phenomenal wizard.

Despite the issues they had had over the last decade, Jade couldn’t think of anyone she would have rather had next to her casting the protection charms that he had taught her.

 

When they finished Alastor was talking the process through with Lucas’ parents whilst she spoke to the teenager in the back garden as they looked over the grass towards the orchard.

“Professor-”

“Seriously, call me Jade whilst we’re not at school”

“Okay… Thank you, for what you’ve done for my family today”

“I can’t have anything happening to one of my best students can I?”

He laughed, running a hand through his hair awkwardly “I thought about it, what you asked for me think about”

“Huh?”

“You asked me and Percy to think about what we wanted to do for work experience at the Ministry”

“Oh yeah, any thoughts?”

“I want to be an Auror, I want to stop people like my biological father”

Jade nodded, agreeing that the young boy really was a good example of the fact tat not everyone from Slytherin was bad, and that not everyone grew up like their parents.

 

As they walked back down to the apparition point in the now baking sunshine, Jade broke the silence.

“Thank you, thank you so much for helping me do that”

“It’s fine”

“You don’t take a thank you very well do you. You never did really. I wanted to, um, tell you something. I’ve been seeing Severus for years, and in the last year at Hogwarts it’s been serious. We, well, he wants to get married after we catch Sirius Black”

Limping next to her Mad Eye just nodded “Yeah, I think it’s best to wait until you’re not so distracted, I never did the marriage thing but I think it would suit you”

Jade came to a dead halt on the lane and looked at him “you’re being serious?”

“You really think I didn’t know about you and Snape? Merlin’s beard, give me some credit. I think you’re an idiot but there we are. Now, what information can you give me about Black? You know him better than I do”

He clearly didn’t want to discuss Severus any more and Jade nodded “Well, I know he hasn’t been there because I put a ton of wards up and they haven’t been broken, but I can take you if you want… Where Sirius grew up – before he was thrown out and came to live with my parents- if you want an idea of what made him?”

“Kingsley said no one could enter the property?”

“I’ve been before”

“When he lived there?”

“No, I went to Grimmauld Place when the war was on. I was invited in by one of the Black brothers, and that means I can get it any time I want, and can invite you through the wards”

That seemed to surprise Moody more than the idea she would get married to Snape “You went there with Regulus Black?”

“Ah, it’s a very long, unfortunate story, and I took the Unbreakble Vow so you’re not going to be happy with me”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for hanging in there, there will be another one in the next few days. Who wants to see Harry trying to understand what the hell is going on..... and well, there's a lot going on in the next few chapters let me tell you that! We just need to see Lucas and his family for a multitude of reasons!


	28. Chapter 28

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jade tells Harry about Severus, and it goes about as well as expected....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the day after this chapter was originally published, I realised I'd forgotten a whole bit about Grimmauld Place that should have been in the previous chapter but it got stupidly long so it got relegated to this chapter!  
> So, sorry about that!

 

Alastor Moody knew that Sirius Black wasn’t at Grimmauld Place, the wards and alerts on the place had been set by Jade and Albus Dumbledore years ago, so they would know immediately if anyone restricted had accessed the building.

It was more out of interest that he followed Jade in as she stripped the wards back and quietly moved through the once stunning house.

They still had no idea where Sirius Black was, or what danger he posed. None of them had seen his betrayal coming, and he was still fascinated to find out exactly what had led him down that path.

He wanted to see where Sirius Black had begun his life, trying to fathom what had happened and where he might be hiding out.

The entrance hall was dark and dusty, and Jade moved through, leading the way and clearly knew where she was going.

Jade picked her way through the debris and felt the weight of the history of the place on her shoulders, Alastor moving quietly behind her.

This was where Sirius and Regulus had been raised, this was where his parents had received the letters about his detentions, and it was where the argument that summer had happened, the summer that had thrown him out for good. He’d taken the Floo right to Potter House and the family of four Potter’s had seamlessly become a five until Jade and James’ parents had died then it was the three of them, and then James had died and it was just Jade, alone, and Sirius in Azkaban.

Of course, when Sirius had lived at Grimmauld place Jade hadn’t been, he didn’t want people seeing his parents spouting blood purity nonsense, and it had only been years later that she had been in the building. That had been with a different member of the Black family though, one she really didn’t know that well, and the silvery weave of magic squeezed at the skin slightly on her forearms as if to remind her of the unbreakable vow she had made with the younger Black brother on that rainy night all those years ago.

_“Just promise me, please?”_

_“How can I trust you? Enough to do what you’re asking of me?”_

_“Jade, please, I know what you think of me, but I’m trying to do the right thing, I need to hide it... I need your help. You’re the only one”_

She had never told a living soul what had happened that night. Jade didn’t even really understand it herself, and it would be many years before what she had helped Regulus do would become clear, but standing in the cold, quiet corridor of the once grand house, she felt the ghost of Regulus and the promise shadowing her.

Alastor had moved upstairs and Jade joined him, seeing that he was standing on the landing, looking at the two open doors, which were the bedrooms of Regulus and Sirius from their childhood.

“I don’t know what I was expecting, some sort of reason as to why the hell this happened. All I’ve seen is a very rebellious child who grew up despising his blood purist parents. There’s a Muggle football club’s poster stuck on one of his walls with some pretty heavy magic, I can’t imagine his parents were too happy. Then you’ve got the room Regulus was in, which screams blood purity and following his parents path… this makes even less sense”

Jade just sighed, glancing over at the room Sirius had slept in before coming to Potter House, feeling nauseous at the thought of it.

“I’ve never seen this room. He didn’t want us to visit when he lived here, and then when he came to live at Potter House he never came back here…”

“When you were here before you didn’t look up here?”

“I was here with Regulus. It wasn’t for long, I made the unbreakable vow downstairs, in the room with the family tree on the wall. In those last few weeks it was Regulus trying to save everyone, and it was Sirius who was plotting to betray my brother. It just doesn’t make any sense”

“What were you **thinking** , committing to an unbreakable vow with a Death Eater?”

Jade was staring still at Sirius’ room, clearly distracted “I wasn’t thinking. I never really knew Regulus much, just in passing, but I trusted him, in that moment I trusted him. He came to me knowing I could arrest or kill him, easily overpower him… You know, he told me that the-”

Jade felt her tongue literally tripping over the words, a warning that she couldn’t finish the sentence “I don’t- I can’t even say what I did, or what he told me, or why. All I can say is that what Regulus Black did, might just have saved us all, and what I did… I don’t understand it myself, but I trusted what he was doing enough to make the Unbreakable Vow with him. So either I’m an idiot or maybe I had both Black brothers wrong the while time”

 

* * *

 

Jade had fallen asleep on the sofa in the front room on the sofa a few hours after Harry had gone to sleep in his room.

For the first time in a long time, Jade had a nightmare.

It wasn’t a surprise really, after all the things she had gone through. She had been tortured with dark magic once, and with the cruciatus curs several times. The deaths and betrayals of friends and family were a mark on Jade’s dreams too, and her time in Azkaban haunted her, and Sirius Black’s escape meant that her head was in turmoil again.

It was hours later that she woke, screaming.

Harry woke with a start, heart racing as he reached for his glasses and scrabbled out of bed and into the front room.

Jade was sat up on the sofa, still fully dressed and the blanket in a heap on the floor. She was wide eyed and clearly panicked, gulping down large deep breaths.

She looked at Harry and visibly calmed down “Jesus, sorry, Harry, I didn’t- that hasn’t happened in a long time”

He looked worried, and as she looked at him standing there in black pyjama trousers and a loose grey t-shirt, hair a mess and glasses on, she couldn’t get over how much he looked like James, matched down to the concerned expression he was giving her.

“What happened?”

“Just a dream Harry, it’s fine, go back to sleep”

He didn’t look too thrilled about the idea and glanced at the window, where the sun was very slightly beginning to rise. It was still very early but as it was summer that meant it still got light early in the morning.

“I probably won’t sleep anyway, do you want a cup of tea?”

Jade looked at him with a raised eyebrow, feeling her heartrate slow down towards normal, and the shaking slow down “Thanks Harry, but you’re awful at making tea. Do you want a hot chocolate? I know it’s not really the season, but I have a friend who seems convinced that chocolate can help with any problem”

Thinking of Remus made her smile slightly as she eased to her feet, still feeling quite ropey and shuffled over to the kitchen and started getting everything together as Harry sat down on the other sofa, stifling a small yawn.

“Look, Harry I’m sorry about waking you up, it hasn’t happened for a long time”

“What was it about?”

Jade didn’t want to say _‘it was the dream where I imagine what happened when James – your father- was killed. The one where I imagine he was tortured first, do you still want that hot chocolate?’_. Instead she just shrugged “lots of things from the war, and Azkaban. I’d rather not talk about it right now, if that’s okay?”

Harry nodded, happy to move on as Jade walked over with the two enormous mugs of hot chocolate and handed one to her nephew and sat down on the sofa she had slept on, legs curled beneath her and getting comfy.

“This is good, thanks”

They sat in a comfortable silence for a while and Jade sighed, clearly not sure how to start the conversation.

“Harry we never really talked about the article that came out about me in the Daily Prophet this year”

For a second he looked baffled and she clarified “the one about me and Professor Snape when we were your age”

Harry did a slow nod, picking a marshmallow off the top of the pile of cream on top of the hot chocolate.

“Yeah. Okay, is there much to talk about?”

“Depends”

Harry gave her a measured expression over his glasses as he sipped the drink, clearly wary about where this was going.

“Depends on what?”

“Harry, your dad and I were very close but actually very different. We probably wouldn’t have been particularly close at school if we weren’t twins, we were quite different people and he never liked Severus, but he was my friend and your dad and his friends they weren’t exactly nice to him. So, I just kept it a secret from him, in a way. We were together through Hogwarts, that was true, in the article. I know you probably don’t want to think about teachers having a life before teaching you but yeah, we were together for a long time whilst we were at school”

Harry looked like he wanted to make a derisive comment but instead muttered “but why him?”

“Harry, you can’t help who you fall in love with”

He pulled a face at that, glancing into his half empty mug, nose wrinkled “ _love?_ ”

“Yes Harry”

He looked like he wanted to be sick at the thought and had a rather deep frown “Did my dad know?”

“I told him not long before he died, it didn’t go down well. During the war Severus and I fell out but then, you know, after the war was over and I was over losing your parents and you, we sort of found our way back to each other”

Harry obviously didn’t want to jump to conclusions about what she had said and the frown deepened “What does that mean? ‘Found each other’ is what...?”

Jade wanted to bail on the conversation but bit the bullet and came out with it “We were seeing each other on and off for the last decade. I’ve been a bit of a mess with one thing and other and didn’t want to be tied down to anyone but…”

Jade considered what to say as Harry took a deep gulp of his drink and she just came out with it “Harry, Severus and I have been dating for the last year”

Jade had chosen the wrong moment to break the news as Harry was midway through swallowing a mouthful of hot chocolate and his surprised noise case at the same time, meaning that he started choking loudly until she swished her wand and he could breathe again.

“Jade, you’re kidding right?”

“No, Harry. I wanted to tell you because we’re the only family each other has left, and it will probably come out eventually”

“But he’s a **_death eater_** ”

Jade kept her voice measured and level “He was once, yes”

“But he- I mean- no. No he’s, well he’s Snape. Of **_all_** people in the world”

Jade put her mug down on the coffee table “Harry, look, I’m not asking for your permission on who I can date. I’m in 30’s and you are my teenage nephew. I know you’re probably not happy about this, but he’s not going to be coming over and having dinner with us, okay, I know you don’t like him for whatever reason”

Harry made a noise at that, clearly ‘don’t like him’ wasn’t quite enough to describe it.

“I think you’re mental”

“Yes, thank you Harry. It’s fine if you don’t want talk about this, you’re still my main concern, okay?”

He put his mug down and nodded thoughtfully.

“I’m going to go and have a shower then breakfast?”

Jade managed a weak smile and nodded, looking out the window at the rising sun.

She was glad that Harry knew, at the very least. She had kept enough secrets from James, she didn’t want to do the same to Harry.

He hadn’t seemed too bothered that they had dated in Hogwarts – horrified, but okay- but it was the fact they had gotten back together after his stint as a Death Eater that had really baffled him.

She hadn’t really seen it coming at the time either. Whilst she had gone to his house the night James and Lily were killed, but after that they hadn’t really spent any time alone for a while.

The two of them had spent time in groups, with Jacob and Claire, they had passed each other at Martha’s house once or twice, and they had been pleasant enough when Amelia Bones had thrown a housewarming party the had both been at, but for about 12-18 months after the war was over and James and Lily had died, they hadn’t been alone together, which was why when they had arrested a particularly dark wizard from Toulouse just over a year after Voldermort’s death who was hanging around in London trying to garner protection for on the run death eaters.

He had been caught with a necklace that Jade had known was cursed -it was a sloppy job and hardly discreet enough to fool anyone- and several bottles of undetectable potions.

As she heard the shower turn on in the next room, Jade sat back on the sofa and tried to figure how on earth she had gotten back together with Severus all those years ago, about a year or so after the war had ended.  
  
  
- _  
Jade was standing up and Kingsley was sat, looking exhausted at his desk. He had been listening as she explained about the arrest of the French wizard, and couldn’t get over the fact that whilst she was the same age as most people who were only just applying to train as an auror, or were in the training programme, she was now promoted to a Senior Auror position with people on average twice her age, and judging by the arrest she had made, she had more than proved herself._

_Kingsley glanced at the necklace with a wary expression “definitely clean?”_

_“Yup. Alastor cleared it, there was some nasty curses attached, and I even had Albus have a glance at it, both said it was safe”_

_Even so, she noticed Kingsley didn’t touch it again, instead pointing to the two bottles of grey and jet black liquid._

_“Do I even want to know what they are?”_

_“Probably not, but I don’t know either. It’s high level potions and I wasn’t as good as that. I can identify some of the ingredients but not enough to know what it is for. I can ask Slughorn to have a look but he’s out the country until next month”_

_“Isn’t Snape teaching potions now?”_

_Jade looked surprised “at Hogwarts? Yes, last I heard”_

_“Well, why don’t you ask him?”_

_“I haven’t really seen him for a while, not just the two of us”_

_Kingsley shrugged “I don’t really care Jade, can you just find out what they are so we can prosecute. Fingers crossed it’s dark and not just hair curling potions”_

_“You can’t use potions for that”_

_“Jade, take a hint, go see Severus Snape”_

_“But-”_

_“I honestly don’t have time for you to be petulant, now go, get out of here, and as it’s Friday just take the rest of the day and make it a long weekend. You’ve earned it”_

_Kingsley was glad she wasn’t annoyed by being called petulant. He regularly forgot that only a few years ago she had been at Hogwarts._  
  
-

_It was the Easter holidays so Jade tried the house in Cokeworth she knew he still lived in, knocking awkwardly. Jade had felt that apparating into the house or using the floo might be a bit forward for someone as private as Severus._

_When he finally answered the door in a clearly bad mood, he was very obviously surprised to see her there._

_Jade had her hands in her pocket and a rather forced smile on her lips. She was wearing dark blue jeans, a black and white striped long sleeved t-shirt and an exceptionally wary look on her face._

_“I, um, I need your help”_

_“With what?”_

_“Can I come in? There’s a lot of muggles around here”_

_He clearly wanted to say no but moved to one side and she came in, glancing round as he closed the front door and looked at her closely._

_“So, I see you’re not wearing your Auror robes, trying to be discrete are we?”_

_“Well I don’t wear them much in the first place but you’re the only wizard in the town so I thought it might be a bit weird if they saw me walking down the road in robes”_

_“Yes you’re probably right. What do you want?”_

_“It’s nice to see you too”_

_Her voice was clearly sarcastic but Severus just cocked his head to one side with a clear ‘just spit it out’ expression and she fished the two bottle of potions out of her pockets._

_“I need your help identifying these. They might be nothing but they were found with a cursed necklace so it’s safe to say the wizard in question wasn’t exactly on the straight and narrow”_

_“And you’ve come to me for this because...?”_

_“Because you’re the best potions maker I know, if anyone is going to know what it is then it’s you”_

_“Nothing to with Slughorn being out of the country?”_

_“Well that too. Look, can you just help me out. Please Sev?”_

_He glanced at her, well aware that there was no way he could say no to Jade Greenlake._

_“Fine. I’ve just made tea if you want some?”_

_Jade shrugged and pulled off her coat, placing it over the back of a chair “Ooooh yes please. Today has been mental. Some French nutter I’ve been tracking for weeks got caught and let me tell you, one thing they don’t tell you about being an Auror is the bloody paperwork. Alastor doesn’t seem to do any and gets away with it but I think I’d be fired if I did that”_

_Severus glanced up from the mugs that he was adding milk to, an eyebrow raised “You’re the ministry darling, the poster child. I don’t think they would get rid of you even if you burned the place down”_

_She smirked and sat down at the dining table as he brought the tea over, handing Jade hers and sitting on the other side of the table._

_Severus tried not to stare too closely at her. Jade looked beautiful as always, and he could see the glint of two very small gold sleeper rings of piercings on her left ears lower cartilage, she had no makeup on but looked bright and beautiful regardless. The last time they had been alone was when she had come to the house after James and Lily had died, and all this time later she looked healthy and alive again._

_Jade sipped her tea slowly, clearly thinking hard for something to say “so. Hogwarts then”_

_“Is that a question or a statement?”_

_“Um, both I guess?”_

_They lapsed into unimportant, trivial conversation for a while, both avoiding anything too heavy as a topic. They finished their tea and then Severus spent a while casting various spells on the bottles to work out their nature._

_He made notes on some parchment whilst she pretended to be interested in the copy of the Daily Prophet he had on the table._

_She’d already skimmed it that morning and was frankly more interested in watching Severus out the corner of her eye. She could never quite work out when he had lost the gangly awkwardness of their teenage years and in their early 20’s had significantly more confidence and self assuredness, she could see it in the way he held himself._

_After about fifteen minutes he glanced up at her “It’s not immediately dangerous. Well, it’s not safe, I wouldn’t play with it, but it’s not going to kill you. I’ve written down what is in them both, that should help”_

_“Ah shit. So it’s not dark magic?”_

_“Well we don’t teach it at Hogwarts, even Durmstrang don’t teach this, but it isn’t going to kill anyone. It’s strange but harmless enough. I’ve isolated Willow and Dragon scales so it won’t harm you if the bottle breaks, but it can be reversed if you want”_

_Jade smiled gratefully, pushing herself to her feet and walking over to where he was standing, looking over the parchment._

_“God your handwriting is still so much better than mine. So, oh I see, what an odd potion… I’ll give this back to Kingsley, you’re amazing, thanks Sev”_

_Severus moved to get the parchment for her, and Jade hadn’t noticed, and their hands met at the same time, overlapping._

_He meant to move his hands away but after a few seconds realised that he hadn’t moved his hand at all, but neither had she._

_Jade was about to say something but instead leant forward and kissed him._

_As she pulled back Severus just looked at her with an unreadable expression for a few seconds._

_“What was that?”_

_“It was a kiss Sev, I’m not sure how else I can explain it really?”_

_“Why?”_

_“Because I thought... I thought you wanted, I don’t know, you wanted me, you wanted us?”_

_He laughed hollowly “Jade, I’d be a lunatic not to want you. I’ve always wanted you, but since the war you’ve not been interested”_

_“Not necessarily true. I haven’t been alone with you for a long time. Might have been odd making a move with other people in the room don’t you think”_

_After that there was very little in the way of brain activity for either of them, the furious kissing seeming to short circuit any rational thought. Severus seemed to come to when they were both half undressed on his bed, Jade lying beneath him._

_Severus sat up a little “this is a bad idea-“_

_Jade nodded, expression sincere “you’re probably right”_

_They just looked at each other for a few minutes before one of them moved -neither was too sure but they might have moved at the same time- and suddenly the awkward silence was filled with heat and groans as hands and lips trailed over exposed skin._  
  
Jade’s hair was sticking to the sweat on the back of her neck and her mascara was smeared on the outside of her eyes, her lipstick completely disappeared from her lips, and her cheeks and skin were flushed and pink.

_Severus didn’t think he’d ever seen anything quite so stunning as she was right then but felt a trickle of regret in his thoughts and glanced at her warily._

_“This was a bad idea, wasn’t it”_

_Jade just nodded._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Love and comments are so so so so so so so appreciated.  
> So, not long till we start third year, and maybe some of the students find out.... dun dun dun.  
> x


	29. Chapter 29

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, third year is finally here

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long. Real life got in the way, then half of this got deleted and I had to re-write it all.  
> Sigh!  
> Here we go.

Sirius Black was smart, despite what his mother and some of his teachers had thought, he was very intelligent.  
  
Half his teachers had thought he was a complete idiot - as well as James- and half had thought that they must have been incredibly intelligent to do half the pranks they had managed at school, and that was without even knowing about the Map.

As he spent his summer after escaping Azkaban scavenging food, moving from woods, to caves, to abandoned barns and then on to the next location, he just felt all his emotions swirling and rising inside him.

In Azkaban all feelings and emotions except fear and dread were dampened and muffled, but now he was out and free of the Dementors Sirius could finally **_feel_** , and it was overwhelming.

The only way for it not to be too much was to spend most of his time in his animagus form, and the dog was less conspicuous than a wanted man, covered in obvious tattoos and with his face plastered on every wall and newspaper in the wizarding world.

On reflection, Sirius wasn’t surprised by the forms they had taken after training to be animagi. Stags were strong and bold, just like James. Dogs were incredibly loyal, just as Sirius was, to a fault. Jade had taken the form of a jaguar, an animal that was fiercely powerful and when provoked, incredibly dangerous. Peter had been a fat little rat which should have been some sort of warning Sirius thought, but none of them had taken it.

Jade had steadfastly refused to have a nickname like the rest of them, though she had used the names and regularity called them Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs, she’d told them not to give her one.

When Sirius thought about his family, the only thing that made him smile rather than feel a bit sick was thinking of the Potter’s. They had been his real family. They had taken him in, asked no questions, opened their home, brought him food, clothes, books, celebrated his birthday and Christmas, taken him to Quidditch matches, anything and everything.

James and Jade had been like siblings to him. He’d never been close with Regulus and the closeness he had had with them was much more genuine.

Sirius knew that he needed to get to Peter, as the rat, and show him to someone, an Auror, Jade, Remus maybe. Jade would have more sway with the ministry than Remus due to her position there. He desperately wanted to see Remus too, but Jade, well, Jade had been the one who had found him when he had finally been thrown out of the house, taking him back to Potter House as a brother.

_It was a wet summers day, and James had been in St Mungo’s with their father when the owl had come and Jade had opened it as it was addressed to them both. James had managed to produce purple boils all over his skin after eating a flower from a plant in the garden their father had created, after being dared to by Jade._

_She’d scanned the note quickly, eyes wide and glanced at her mother who was reading a book._

_“Mum, I’m popping out for a bit, I’ll use the floo okay?”_

_She just nodded, Jade was old enough to take short trips with the floo by herself and she pulled on a jacket before muttering “Ministry for Magic” and disappearing into the fireplace._

_Jade was a teenager in a black skirt, plain white top and a long denim jacket but the adults running around the Ministry Atrium were too distracted to notice her. It was the summer holidays which meant that the Atrium was used by lots of people as a meeting place._

_Sirius looked small and sad, the cockiness all gone and he looked miserable. He was sat on the floor with his back against the wall, far back enough that few people saw him there._

_Jade looked at him as she came towards him, seeing the jeans with the ripped knees, the black boots, the oversized t-shirt, the always present leather jacket and the ruffled hair. He tried so hard to look effortlessly cool but she knew full well it had taken him longer to get ready that morning than it took her to pull on the first clean things she had found._

_She sat down beside him on the floor and he managed a rather weak “Hey freckles”_

_“Come on, you’re coming back to my house”_

_“They... Jade they kicked me out”_

_“If they can’t appreciate how amazing you are then it’s probably for the best, you know the house, we’ve got enough rooms for you”_

_“I don’t need a room, it’s only for a few days”_

_Jade gave him a roll of the eyes “Sirius, you’re family, alright, you’re like an equally annoying brother, I didn’t really want another one but here we are. Mum and dad love you, James and I love you, there’s a home for you here whenever you need it”_

_Sirius squeezed her hand gratefully and they stood back up._  
  
-  
As they arrived back at Potter House, Mrs Potter glanced up from the stove with a broad grin “Sirius! Oh so good to see you”

_She dropped what she was doing and came over to hug him tightly. “This is a nice surprise, are you staying a while?”_

_Jade pulled a face “Mum, Sirius sort of left home, final straw with his parents”_

_Mrs Potter clicked her tongue disapprovingly and shook her head “well they don’t know what they’re missing, do they? Now, come on, you know you’re always welcome here don’t you”_  
-  
When James and Monty made it home a few hours later, Sirius and Jade were helping to set the table for dinner.

_James looked thrilled but confused “alright mate, didn’t know you were coming over?”_

_His mum put the dinner on the table with a sympathetic smile “Sirius and his parents have had an argument, and so he’s going to stay here”_

_Sirius looked embarrassed but Monty just nodded and sat down at the table “Merlin’s beard, only pureblood nonsense would lead you to throwing your own boy out”_

_His wife swatted him on the back of the head and the three teenagers laughed as he continued._

_“Well Sirius, I’ve known you long enough to know that they are the ones missing out on a very nice, very bright young lad, so that is their mistake to make I guess. If there’s one thing I want you to know, it is that in this house, in this family, you will always be welcome, and you will always have a home”_

_Sirius had had tears in his eyes that everyone ignored so he wasn’t more embarrassed and from that day onwards, the Potter’s became a family of five._  
  
  
  
Summer plodded on for Jade, and it was sickeningly hot most of the time, but she was having a great time getting closer to Harry. They had far more time just the two of them together, and spent a lot of days out in Muggle London.

Harry often forgot that Jade was famous within the wizarding world and saw more people give her second glances than they did to him, which was a welcome relief, so they spent more time out with Muggles where neither of them were known.

The Dursley’s rarely took Harry out on their interesting trips, so he was fascinated by a lot of the museums and sights that she had taken him to.

One day they had gone to Gringott’s and to Jade’s vault to get some money to change into Muggle money, and Harry had been staggered by the amount of money that his Aunt had. James and Jade’s parents had given them each half of their money once they died, and James’ money had made its way to Harry. He knew that he was quite wealthy from what his father had left, but it was nothing compared to the amount of gold and expensive objects kept in Jade’s vault.

As it turned out she had done some work as a ‘private auror’ just after the war had paid _incredibly_ well. She had explained to Harry as they walked over Tower Bridge with ice creams that families wanted people found, precious items that had been lost or taken during the war, and various other tasks that required tracking skills but weren’t something the Ministry could be involved in.

She had earned in a few months what she would earn in a year with the Auror department so it hadn’t been a bad idea really. The apartment was stupidly expensive but that had long been paid off, and she was probably as well off as some of the staunchly pure blood families, but had no interest in showing it off, not like the Malfoy’s.

Harry’s birthday passed quietly, Jade took him to a Holyhead Harpies Vs Puddlemere United Quidditch game in Devon that wasn’t exactly a cup final, but Harry had never seen a match outside of school so he was riveted.

Afterwards Jade had taken him back to London through side-on apparition and they had gone to dinner, having burgers and milkshakes before heading back to the apartment.

Harry was content and happy. It was a quiet birthday but it was without question one of the best he had ever had, and Jade was glad he didn’t seem to notice how on edge she was when out in public, constantly aware where her wand was, carefully scanning crowds for the familiar face of Sirius Black.

They had made a bit of an agreement not to talk about Jade and Severus being in a relationship and for that she was really grateful. He hadn’t told Hermione and Ron to her knowledge, but for the rest of the summer holidays she wasn’t going to bring it up and upset him, instead happy to just carry on spending time together without him freaking out that she was sleeping with his teacher.

 

The same as the year before, Jade had to go back to Hogwarts a few weeks before the students did, with the other teachers to prepare for the new school year.

The Weasley’s had offered to look after Harry whilst Jade came and went from the school and Harry got on so well with them that they’d all agreed.

As the summer holidays came to an end and she spent the day at the burrow whilst Harry was getting settled back in and Harry was messing around with several of the Weasley siblings in the garden, Arthur had stood next to her at the window with a small smile.

“He’ll be fine here, you know there are wards up everywhere”

“I know, Gideon told me about them once, and I know you and Molly will look out for him. I was actually thinking about how he fits so well into the family, reminded me of how Sirius became a part of my family”

Arthur pulled a face at that “Might be a bad example. Anyway, Percy wants to speak to you, he’s in the kitchen, I don’t know if he’s trying to get details about the curriculum or who is Head Boy or something”

Jade smiled slightly “Well, don’t tell anyone but between you and me Arthur, I think he’ll be very happy when the letters go out to the Head Boy and Girl in the next few weeks”

 

Jade headed home to pack up a few hours later, her apartment seeming very quiet without Harry.

Percy Weasley had told her he wanted to work at the Department for International Magic cooperation which she couldn’t understand because it was the most boring place in the entire world in her opinion. She could get him some experience there easily however, as it was being run by Barty Crouch Sr, and he liked her well enough. They had never explicitly said it, but they both knew what it was like to be betrayed by someone close to you.

Sirius and Barty Jr had both blindsighted those around them.

 

Jade left Harry at the Burrow on the Friday, and it was the Monday that she was going to go to Hogwarts. She hadn’t seen Remus since Sirius had escaped, but the Aurors were still at a loss as to where their escapee number one was, and Jade knew that they wanted to speak to him again. It was the day before the full moon, so he knew that he was going to be a nervy, twitchy mess, and so had told the Aurors on Sirius’ case that she would speak to him that weekend, though she had made it very clear that he would have nothing to do with him being on the run.

Jade liked the little cottage that Remus lived in. It was very isolated but that was exactly what he needed, and he was surrounded by fields and very few wizards, so it was easier to cover his tracks and his monthly transformations with magic.

She knew that there was no chance he had helped Sirius escape or that he was helping him now, but she’d agreed to speak to him, so awkwardly knocked on the front door.

There was a lot of noise inside the house before the door was flung open, and Remus was there looking angry.

“What do **you** want?”

Jade hated seeing Remus this close to the full moon, it was the following night so he was angry, bitter and on edge. His skin felt hot and itchy, all his senses were painfully heightened, emotions all dialled up to 100%, muscles ached, eyes were dry and hot, and he felt awful.

She tried to sound gentle and calming “Can I come in?”

“Ugh, fine. We’ll both be at the school on Monday, can’t this wait?”

“Not really”

He moved aside to let her in, and closed the door loudly before practically glaring at her in the hallway.

Jade knew that it was the last transformation he would have to go through without the aid of Wolfsbane after the term started, so he was probably very bitter as well.

“Do you want to sit, Moony?”

“Not really”

 _Great_ she thought, he was in a seriously awful, and very un-Remus like.

“Good, well, it’s about Sirius”

“Uhuh?”

“I need to look in your mind and check that you haven’t been in contact with Sirius, I need to use legillimens to check”

Remus looked furious, and it truly threw Jade. Remus was never one for any really strong negative emotions, and it had been a long time since she’d seen him like this.

His voice was quiet but oddly threatening “how about you remember who it was that found you that night, nearly drowning in your own blood” he grabbed her hand and turned it palm up, so that her wrist and the scar across it was visible.

Jade snatched her hand back but he had made his point. “I never told the ministry, I never told anyone. I thought we had each other’s backs, and now you want to come and accuse me of what exactly? You think I’m hiding Sirius in the garden do you? Think I’ve decided to forgive him for what he did? Don’t be thick, you’re meant to be smart”

Jade looked genuinely offended “you know I don’t actually think you’ve got him here, Jesus Christ Remus, I had to ask”

“You didn’t”

“It’s me or a bunch of Auror’s, that’s your choice. I thought you’d rather have a friendly face rather than Dawlish and Proudfoot poking around, breaking things”

Remus didn’t look placated at all “go on, look in my mind, if that’s what gets your off, go on then”

He waved his hands, clearly not sure what Jade needed from him to do it, but she just needed eye contact. She stared into his – full of anger- eyes and slipped into his mind. She searched down the corridors and aisles of his mind, sifting quickly through anything related to Sirius.

Jade was as quick as she could be, feeling a bit sick at the memories Remus had of Sirius, seeing just how much he had been in love with Sirius. She didn’t know if it was the platonic love she had had for Padfoot or something else, but she didn’t want to hang around and see, leafing through the memories, seeing nothing recent other than reading articles and sitting in his house worried.

Jade pulled out of his mind and they looked at each other in a stony silence before Remus practically growled at her “Get out of my bloody house”

“I’m sorry, I had to-”

“Get out”

-

 

Jade apparated as close to Severus’ house as she could without being seen, then let herself in, having been given entry to the wards years ago.

She stood in the hallway and called “Sev?” and he appeared a minute later, looking baffled.

“J- you alright? I wasn’t expecting you?”

She didn’t explain, closing the gap between them and kissing him, hard. When she pulled back he just blinked, baffled, his hands on her hips.

“I’m glad to see you, but what’s wrong? You look stressed. Where’s Harry?”

“Harry’s with the Weasley family, and I had to go and see Remus”

“About Black?”

“Yeah. It’s the full moon tomorrow and the Auror’s were insistent about speaking to him, I’ve let Kingsley check my memories already, I didn’t want anyone looking in his head and seeing about his lycanthropy…”

“And as it’s the full moon tomorrow I assume he wasn’t in a good mood?”

Jade shook her head before resting it on his chest, voice thick with trying not to cry. “No, no he wasn’t and now he bloody hates me”

Severus just kissed her hair. “Come on, we’re heading to the school tomorrow, I’ll get us a pizza or something tonight, if you want to stay here?”

Jade glanced up at him, seeing that he looked so wary. “Yeah, I’d love that. Thanks, **_I love you_** ”

-

  
Jade had to go back to her apartment to finish packing up before heading to Hogwarts, so Severus had gone to the school ahead of her, and immediately fell back into ‘dungeon bat’ mode, even without any students there.

The castle was strange when it was only a few of the teachers rattling around the building, and all he was doing was setting up the stock room and getting on with the wolfsbane potion.

He had been working on preparing the ingredients for the wolfsbane in the otherwise empty potions classroom, not hearing the approaching steps until there was a knock on the open door.

Severus glanced up and saw Remus there looking awkward and incredibly unwell, pale and drawn with dark circles under his eyes and his voice croaky.

“I thought Jade was coming today? She’s not in the castle?”

Severus looked up with a raised eyebrow and put down the sharp knife and the willow bark he’d been chopping.

“You look bloody awful. She’s coming later today, I assume you’re going to apologise?”

“It’s not anything to do with you”

Severus looked like he wanted to hex Remus and carefully set him with an icy glare.

“You upset her”

“It was just a disagreement that got out of hand”

“Maybe to you, but she has been devastated. I don’t even care who said what to who, just go and apologise”

“So she went to your house this weekend then I assume?”

Severus just picked up his knife and resumed chopping, muttering “Fuck off Lupin”  
  
-

Jade had arrived after lunch, using her wand to unpack her things and heading straight down to the greenhouse. Of all the teachers she was the one that had the most to sort out. Whilst the house elves had done a good job stopping the greenhouses going wild, but there was an awful lot of work to do before the term began.

She hadn’t gone to find Severus, aware that he was busy making potions, and they could see each other that night anyway.

Unlike Severus she heard the footsteps before the knock and knew who it was without having to look up from the plant on the greenhouse workbench she was pruning.

“Moony, what do you want I’m actually fairly busy, and you should be resting at home, you look awful”

“I wanted to say sorry”

“Uhuh”

Jade was being childish and she knew it but so was Remus so she really didn’t care.

“I shouldn’t have gone off at you, I do understand that the ministry need to check. I guess I forget that you’re part of the ministry sometimes. Sirius is out there somewhere and, well, no one has found him yet”

“Perceptive as always Moony”

“I wasn’t myself, it was just before the moon and …”

Jade put the pruning scissors down and turned to Remus, realising she wasn’t actually that annoyed anymore.

“You know I can’t stay annoyed at you, alright. I never thought you’d be helping Sirius, okay. I don’t know how he got out, I don’t know what he’s planning, but I trust you. The Ministry is in turmoil, this is unprecedented territory for us”

Remus nodded awkwardly and Jade turned behind her, picking up the spare pare of dragon hide gloves and threw them to him.

“You clearly need to sit down. May as well make yourself useful and help me out”  
  
  
A few hours later Remus went to his room to try and get some rest and Jade wandered up to McGonnaghal’s office, greeting her former head of house with a smile, the older woman sat writing lesson plans.

“Are you busy?”

“No, it’s good to see you, sit down, you want some tea?”

She nodded and sat down heavily in the spare chair as a cup of tea appeared in front of her.

“Good summer? I assume you had Harry?”

“Well, it was lovely in that sense, but the news about Sirius Black… well it tainted everything to be honest”

“You’ve made no progress on finding him?”

“No. Well, I’m not on the case but no, they haven’t. Kingsley searched my mind just in case I’d had some contact”

Minerva looked appalled “He thought you had _helped_ Black?”

“Oh no, no, no. He thought I might have been under the Imperious and helped him. I mean, if I was Sirius and was going to Imperious someone, I make the most sense. I live by the Ministry, I’m able to access any information or paperwork that I want, prison records, personal records, addresses, who is under official protection, and pretty much all Ministry files”

“And Kingsley was…?”

“He cleared me, anyway, Fabian and Moody made sure I could shake an Imperious the first few months I was in the Department”

“Good. Well, are you happy to be back?”

Jade’s voice was flat “oh yeah, thrilled. Sirius Black is out of prison planning god knows what and I’m here teaching plants to teenagers”

Mcgonnaghal pulled a face “I’ve got some news for you, and you’re not going to like it”

“What is it?”

“The Ministry want to have Dementors around the edge of the grounds to keep the students safe in case Sirius Black tries to come in. I know they have a worse effect on people who have been around them a lot… like Azkaban… I wanted to warn you”

Jade exhaled deeply, crossed her arms on the table and dropped her head into the gap in her arms with a deep groan.

“Fucking hell. The term hasn’t even started yet and I already want to leave”  
  
-

That night, Jade was already fast asleep when she felt the bed dip beside her and a warm body with a familiar scent of aftershave mingled with the shower gel he kept in her bathroom.  
The arms around her were gentle and the kiss just behind her ear simply sent her drifting off more heavily into a deeper sleep.

Jade woke slowly and realised she was alone in the bed and sat up, seeing that the bedroom door was open and she could see through into her living room. Severus was sat there reading the newspaper and so she rolled herself out of bed, pulled on her dressing gown and walked out to him.

“Morning, have you been up long?”

He tipped his paper down to see her, wearing just his boxers from the night before and nothing else.

“Only about 45 minutes, you were fast asleep so I thought I’d leave you to it”

His hair was ruffled in the way that she loved and Jade moved to sit so that she was in his lap, legs sideways over him.

Severus grinned, an arm around her waist.

“God you look beautiful on the morning”

Jade knew her curly hair was a tangled mess, her eyes were still heavy with sleep and she definitely didn’t look beautiful, mascara dried on the edges of her eyes.

Regardless she gave him a quick kiss and settled against his chest, Severus picking the newspaper up and they both sat there in the sunshine, reading quietly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you're all amazing. Thanks everyone who is leaving kudos and comments, and everyone still reading. You're amazing


	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one week!

Remus was struggling to adjust to being back at Hogwarts, and seemed to come and go quite a bit, and Jade didn’t push it.

She knew he didn’t really want to be back at Hogwarts, and she sympathised completely. The year before when she had been setting up to start her first year of teaching, she had been flooded with memories of her friends, some of which had ended up high up in the Ministry like Amelia Bones, those that were dead like Peter and James, and then there was the memories that hurt the very most, like the memories of Sirius that she knew he found as painful as she did.

Whilst places in the world reminded Jade of Sirius, none were as bad as Hogwarts, where they had been so, so close and happy.

Jade had finally managed to at least vaguely sort the greenhouse after a few days back at the school, sending owls nearly twice with Harry, and he was keeping her updated with what her nephew was up to at the Burrow.

Jade was infinitely glad that Harry was protected enough to know how much danger he was potentially in with Sirius still on the loose.  
  
\- -

After a few days at Hogwarts Jade found herself sat in Dumbledore’s office, feeling like a student who was in trouble, even though Albus looked quite amenable.  
  
“Albus, you wanted to see me?”

“Yes, sit down. Lemon drop?”

“Go on then. What is wrong? Is it about Sirius?”

“Not exactly. I wondered if you had told Harry about his connection to him?”

“Does he know Sirius is his godfather you mean? I assume so. I haven’t told him but it is a fairly well known fact isn’t it. I’d be amazed if one of the Weasley’s hasn’t told him. It was in the Daily Prophet as well I think? Why?”

“Minerva told me she had told you about the Dementor’s, and that they will be patrolling the grounds. I didn’t want you to be blind sighted. I have to wonder if it might be best to try and minimise Harry’s exposure to the danger he might be in with Sirius Black on the loose”

Jade nodded, distracted by Fawkes as the phoenix preened itself. “Yeah, I had the same thought really. I don’t want to wrap him in cotton wool but this is one of the safest places in the world, and I know all the teachers, especially you and Remus would do everything to protect the students… I don’t want him to spend this year terrified of what might happen”

Albus nodded in agreement, looking relieved she wasn’t going to fight him on it.

“Very well. Well, we can talk about it another time, you never know, they may find Black before the term starts”

“A bit unlikely. Sirius was always smart, very, very smart. It is no real surprise he was working as a code breaker, if you think of the things he managed to create and do when we were students, he is a very proficient wizard. If he has managed to find a way out of the most secure prison in the world, then if Sirius doesn’t want to be found, then he won’t come out and let himself be caught. I’ll be honest the last thing I want to do is talk about bloody Sirius Black, he’s taken enough from me”

“Indeed. I assume you will be spending a lot of tie with Severus this year, helping with the potion for Remus”

He had a little smirk on his face and she knew what he was actually trying to insinuate and stood with a roll of the eyes “Yes, _thank you_ Albus, I’m going to go and sort out the greenhouse”

  
  
Jade left Dumbledore’s office and trailed through the nearly silent castle and down over the grass towards the set of greenhouses nestled a little way away from the castle. She had an office in the castle itself but had no need until term started to use it, so was quite glad for the solitude of the greenhouses in the last few weeks of summer.

As she walked over the grass her eyes were drawn towards the lake and a large tree just off the side of it, a memory of her dead friend coming to her mind. Peter had never been the closest to her of the Marauders, but he had still been a friend, and Sirius being on the loose just made her think more and more about Pettigrew.

_It was exam season in sixth year, and Jade found Peter sat out on the grass way over the other side of the lake, under a tree and clearly upset._

_“You okay Pete?”_

_He glanced up at her and shrugged morosely “I’ve been reading the notes for the transfiguration exam so many times but nothing is going in. I’m going to fail”_

_She sighed and sat down next to him, taking the notes out of his hand to have a flick through what he had written as he continued._

_“You know, Remus is so smart, so are you, and Sirius and James just make no effort and know everything, and I just.... struggle”_

_“Don’t compare yourself to other people Peter. Look it’s Saturday, I can spare a few hours before I do my potions essay. I’ll go over this with you”_

_“You’re sure?”_

_“Of course. Now come on, let’s go over the Rialikas Spells”_

_Peter look blank and Jade just laughed gently, “right, get your wand out and I’ll show you”_  
  
  
-  
Jade and Remus were sat together at lunch in the hall a little earlier than everyone else, so they were the only ones there, which had been the plan.

“See Moony, What worries me is them on the train, doesn’t seem safe”

“How so?”

“If Sirius wants to get at Harry he’ll have a hard time in the castle, and there wasn’t much chance when he was around me was there this summer. I’ve got no concerns about him with the Weasley’s, Molly is fiercely protective and let’s not forget Gideon and Fabian were her brothers so I’m sure they taught her a thing or two, and despite his job, Arthur is a deceptively good dueller, he was at the Battle of the Ministry. On the train though...”

“There’s no adults”

Jade nodded, taking a bite of her chicken Caesar salad “I mean there’s the woman who does the snacks but I don’t see she’s done a lot of fighting in her time, and then it’s the head boy and girl and prefects in charge. We’ve got yet another Weasley Head Boy this year, that’s the third in a row, but he wouldn’t be able to stop Sirius if he tried to attack the train”

“I’ll do it”

“Do whatnow?”

He leant over and took some of the chicken off her plate with his fork “I’ll come back on the train. You can’t do it you’ll just embarrass Harry”

“Hey! I have it on good authority that I am a cool aunt”

Remus snorted derisively and shook his head “your parents were cool, they literally let you and Prongs get away with anything and practically encouraged you. You’re a teacher, that automatically takes you down a good few points. I’m going back for a few days anyway, I’ll come back up on the train in case anything happens”

“You’d do that?”

“Why not? Not like I’ve got a lot else to do is it”

Jade nodded gratefully “Thank you. I just don’t know what the _hell_ Sirius is _thinking_ , there’s no outcome that doesn’t end in him being killed by the Auror’s, or if he doesn’t resist then they’ll give him the Dementor’s kiss”

“Well, it turns out we had no clue what was going on in his head. Did we”

They were silent for a minute as they ate their lunch and Remus glanced around the Hall to check that they were still alone, his voice low just in case anyone came in.

“Do we… do you think that he got out because of… _Padfoot?”_

Remus had used the nickname rather than saying animagus, but she shook her head and answered quickly “a dementor can tell when someone is transformed as an animgaus”

He looked at Jade curiously and she shrugged “I read about it, when I knew I was going, there’s a lot more animagi in America -I mean the population is far far far higher so that figures- and they have Dementors at their prison who can tell if someone is transformed so they can’t escape”

Remus looked surprised “Were you going to try to escape Azkaban?”

Jade threw a withering look “no. I had a few months and then my dream job to walk back into, it wasn’t the usual situation”  
  
Jade didn’t know of course, as only about one person in the Ministry knew, that the dementors in America had had to be specially ‘trained’ to recognise an animagus, something that the English ones hadn’t.

  
-  


It was only a few days before the students came back and Jade and Severus had managed to find some time together in the early afternoon, and she was helping to prepare the Wolfsbane in his brewing room, which was off the back of the potions classroom.

Jade had been distracted, reading over the latest information from Kingsley about Sirius, which was essentially nil. She’d been sat there writing out thoughts and ideas on what the hell Sirius was up to and where he was going to be, and Severus was trying to do the complex potion whilst Jade was distractedly talking at him -rather than to him in a dialogue- about a disjointed train of thought, standing by the window.

Putting down the stirring spoon, Severus just rolled his eyes and stood up “please stop talking”

“Yes but what if he is in the West so that-“

She cut off with a sharp hiss of breath when his long fingers made their way quickly into her underwear and he just looked unbelievably pleased with himself.

“Cat got your tongue?”

Jade tried to think of some type of rational thought but came up short, managing a strangled gasp as she held onto his arms for support.

“Yeah that’s what I thought, you need to turn your brain off sometimes”

Again she was struggling to source an intelligent remark in return but things were definitely stopping working in her brain and he kissed down her neck and shoulder with a self satisfied look.

“My god if only I knew this was all it would take to get five minutes silence out of you”

He was joking and Jade was about to say something back but as she came there was just a stream of muttered swearing and panting.

He leant in to kiss her but they were interrupted by a knock on the door, making them both freeze.

Severus took his hand out of her underwear and put them both in his pockets, and Jade quickly smoothed her hair before opening the door.

Standing in the doorway, Remus looked between the two of them, both betraying absolutely no emotion.

Remus looked to Severus, Jade, then back to Severus again before laughing slightly.

“You know, showing absolutely no emotion is a bit of a giveaway as well. If you caught me in a room with Flitwick I wouldn’t have to school my face into a completely blank expression. I mean I might be wrong but I’ll assume you were up to something that I’ve just interrupted?”

Two sets of **_‘don’t push it’_** expressions looked back at him before Remus cracked a very smug grin

“Jesus Christ. Well I was just looking for you to say that I’m heading back home for a few days, I’ll leave after dinner, and I’ll be back on the train on Monday”

Severus just nodded awkwardly and glanced to the potion behind him “I’ll get back to that”

Jade looked marginally embarrassed and slipped out the room with Remus, closing the door partially behind her as they stood in the potions classroom, a huge grin on her friends face.

“Crikey, getting off in a potions room, aren’t you _bad_ ”

“Oh my word, Moony, please don’t be like that”

His grin only widened “I think I am going to really enjoy this year”

“I hate you”

“Nah, you don’t. Anyway, I’m off to see McGonnaghal and then I’ll see you at dinner”

He smiled and started to walk towards the door to the corridor and turned back with a smug look “oh and try and keep your hands to yourself Greenlake”

 

With that he was gone and Jade went back into the brewing room and closed the door firmly behind her.

“Now, where were we?”

He glanced at his watch “we’ll have to table this for later, I told Albus I’d go and see him at half past”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, but I’ll see you after, and how about you think of how to return the favour?”

He grinned and gave her a quick kiss before leaving.

 

They didn’t get time to themselves until after dinner, and Jade spent the entire meal interrogating Charity Burbage about how on early Muggles used a toaster, the muggle studies professor looking a bit weary.

After she had seen Remus off, Jade made her way back up to the castle and to Severus’ room, magically locking the door behind her so there was no repeat of their earlier interruption.

Severus was thinking, as always, sat on the sofa, deep in thought, elbows on his knees and hands steepled under his chin.  
  
“What are you thinking about?”

“Too much. Black, Dementors at the castle, you, classes, the students, the-“

He was cut off by Jade dropping slowly down to the floor on her knees and muttering “you need to stop thinking so much, what did you say to me- switch your brain off”

“Jade I-“

She ignored him, unbuttoning and unzipping the trousers, pulling them down a little along with his boxers.

She glanced up at him, enjoying how just the anticipation alone had caused his pupils to go wide and his breathing had sped up a little. She didn’t waste time and took him in her mouth, enjoying the long drawn out groan from his mouth.

Long fingers tangled in her hair, not forceful but just enough to dictate the rhythm he wanted.

After he finished Jade pushed herself up and sat down beside him on the sofa, watching as he caught his breath.

“So I guess that makes us even then?”

“You really are a smug witch aren’t you? You have no idea how much I love you”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy x


	31. Chapter 31

Jade was tired, having been up all night with a knot in her stomach about the train journey with the students.

She knew Remus would be with them so that had eased some of her concern but the stress hadn’t disappeared by any means.

She had felt unwell, distracted and tired and for the last few days she’d been caught several times staring off into the distance midway through doing something.

The entire school made her think of Sirius, and whilst that had been an issue the year before, it was now that he was out of Azkaban and on the run that she really truly found herself thinking about him. The most recent one that had hit her hard was from their fourth year, the corridor where he had found her crying after an exam and just sat beside her on the floor, enchanting the inhabitants of a portrait on the opposite wall to dance until she cheered up.

Jade had got full marks in the exam in the end, but it had been such a lovely memory until Sirius had betrayed them, and in the previous year she had barely noticed that the corridor was the same one that her rooms were in, and walking to and from her rooms now meant that she felt a little sad each time.

Severus knew that she was taking Sirius’ escape harder than she was saying aloud, and that she really was worried – maybe not scared, Jade Greenlake didn’t do scared easily- about what he might do.

 

On the night before the students came back Jade had gone to bed very early, and Severus had come in a few hours later, curling up beside her in the dark room.

She moved a little, turning around to see him, eyes bleary and voice thick with sleep.

“Sev?”

He touched the dip of her waist “Yes, were you expecting someone else in your bed?”

She laughed lightly “No, only you”

Severus made a murmur of agreement and Jade turned around, so her back was to him, and moved back against him so that they were spooning, and he could hear her breathing level out as she fell asleep against him almost immediately.

 

Jade woke up still sleepy, the sunlight pouring into the window through a partially open window and she grumbled, trying to get back to sleep.

A soft laugh made her turn over and she realised Severus was up, sitting in bed reading the Daily Prophet in his boxers with a frown.

“Apparently Black was sighted in Cumbria but then again, it could literally be anyone they’ve admitted, and he might have got normal clothes and cut his hair so who knows”

“Cheers” Jade stretched “that was rubbish news to wake up to”

He shrugged “sorry”

Sleepily jade pushed herself up so she was halfway up and rubbed her eyes tiredly “the students are coming today”

“Oh joy of joys. Can’t wait. You know how much I love teaching ungrateful, unskilled teenagers”

Jade rolled her eyes a little “well I wouldn’t have passed potions without your help back in the day so do I count under that bracket?”

Severus shook his head, flipping the paper down on to his lap “no, you’re in a league of your own”

She just smirked “if your students could see you like this-“

“What, in just underwear in bed with their naked Herbology professor? I think they’d be a bit confused”

Jade shrugged, stretching her shoulders lazily “I mean if you’d rather I didn’t sleep naked I’m happy to buy some pyjamas”

She was teasing and he leant down for a quick kiss “No, but it is **_very_** distracting”

He didn’t move back, instead throwing the copy of the Prophet on the floor and moving over her, never happier that she slept naked than that moment.

-

 

The only thing that levelled Jade through the day was the knowledge that Remus was on the train with Harry and the other students. She had a picture somewhere of a grinning, teary eyed -though he had adamantly denied the tears- Sirius holding a newborn Harry and there was a time when she would have never considered that he would do anything to hurt Harry, but then again _had she ever really known him?_

The students were coming mid afternoon and she hadn’t been able to eat anything at lunch, leg bouncing nervously as she downed yet another cup of tea, only making her stomach tighter.

Minerva had suggested that Jade met the students on the platform as at least one teacher needed to be there to get the older students up to the carriages, whilst Hagrid took the first years in the boats.

 

Hagrid was down by the water sorting out the boats, and Jade was stood there in black boots, dark grey jeans and a dark red t-shirt, with her black teaching robes on but open, flapping around in the wind, though she was covered from the rain by a charm.

She knew there was an problem when it got to 5.02 PM and they were late. The Hogwarts Express was never, ever late. A few seconds later a ghostly white wolf that she immediately recognised as Lupin’s patronus, his gentle voice echoing down the empty platform.

_ “Dementors searched the train. Delayed… everyone is okay… be there soon” _

Everyone who had been in the Order knew how to send a message with a patronus but it was hard to send more than very basic messages, but the message was clear.

She was grateful beyond words that Remus had been there. Just the thought of a dementor made her skin crawl, let alone the effect it had probably had on the poor first year students.

Not long after the message from Remus, the train pulled in slowly. The students got off and she could see they were a lot more subdued than usual.

A large white, ghostly jaguar bounded around the platform, her patronus much more excitable than she was. Jade couldn’t see Remus but assumed he was still on the train somewhere and she saw Percy Weasley in the crowd and quickly muttered.

“What happened? **_Dementors_**?”

Percy glanced at her with a slightly worried expression, voice quiet “the students are okay, no one was hurt”

“Did they find anything?”

“No, looking for Sirius Black. He wasn’t on the train”

Jade just nodded distractedly, thinking and glancing around at the students who all looked baffled and scared, her voice loudly shutting them all up and she cast a charm to keep the rain largely off them all.

“Gryffindor students with Mr Weasley, Ravenclaw with Miss Clearwater” she knew they were the Head Boy and girl and glanced to see which other seventh year prefects were near her “ah, Slytherin with Mr Farris please, and Hufflepuff with Miss Griffin please. Follow us and we’ll go to the carriages, I know everyone’s a bit unsettled but we’re nearly at the castle, and I’m not going to let anything happen to you, okay”

The students looked happier now and formed themselves into lines behind their assigned prefects and Jade nodded to Penelope Clearwater, who started to lead the way up to the castle.

Jade saw a shaken Harry, Ron and Hermione near the back and squeezed her nephew’s shoulder “You’ll be fine, we’ll be in the grounds in a minute, I’ll talk about it to you later, okay?”

She wanted to stay with the three teenagers but had to remember that there were lots of other students that needed looking after as well, and then she saw Remus at the back of the group of students, keeping an eye on them, and glancing down at where the first years were in the boats with Hagrid, the little lights on the boats visible through the heavy rain.

Jade’s patronus was bounding up and down the lines of students, and the older ones were explaining to the younger, nervous ones that it would keep them safe

Jade fell into step with Percy, her eyes looking around quickly, and making sure there was enough of a gap between the students in front of him and behind, their voices quiet “did they attack any students?”

“No, Harry, Ron and Hermione were in a carriage with the new professor and they entered but the new teacher used a patronus to get them out”

“Good. Good. We’re nearly at the gates, we’ll be fine once we get in there”

“You think Sirius Black would actually come after Harry?”

Jade shook her head but didn’t believe it “no, but it’s always good to be safe”

 

All of the students got in the carriages, and Jade didn’t care about being embarrassing, hugging Harry tightly before he climbed in.

“You’re fine, you’re fine, and you’re safe. Okay?”

He nodded, clearly calmed and Jade managed an encouraging smile “they’re awful I know, but you’re in the safest place on earth now, and you know I’ll never let anything happen to you”

Remus stayed behind with Jade as everyone as the carriages set off for the castle, the two old friends letting out a sigh and looking at each other.

“You know what Moony, I am so bloody grateful you were on the train”

“They were interested in Harry, I’m not sure what would have happened. What was the Ministry _thinking_?”

“This is from the people that run Azkaban, I can tell you for sure the Scrimgeour would never allow Dementors to have boarded the train. God what a mess… How was it?”

“How was what?”

“Seeing Harry for the first time since he was a baby”

The pair of them started walking up towards the castle and Remus shrugged with a shaky exhale “You said he looks like James but I didn’t expect him to look **so** much like him. Nearly had to do a double take”

“Exactly. We were bloody twins and didn’t even look anywhere near as alike as James and Harry. You know he was so cocky he’d have been so smug about that”

Remus managed a light laugh at that as the castle came in to sight.

 

When they got to the castle there was a few very stressed looking younger students still in the entrance hallway, and Jade took it upon herself to talk to them and comfort them a little bit, telling Remus to go and sit down for the beginning of the feast, especially as the students did know him yet.

Through the feast Jade didn’t eat or drink anything, sat between a rather surly Severus and a quite happy Remus.

When Dumbledore announced Remus’ appointment as Defence Against the Dark Arts position Jade clapped, feeling Severus stiffen beside her and clap twice and then give up.

She glanced at him with a quick, sympathetic look. She did appreciate that it couldn’t be easy to see the man who was in a group of students who used to bully you, coming along and taking the job you had always dreamed of.

 

Harry had found Jade at the end of the feast and in a shaky voice told her all about what had happened on the train. She decided not to mention that Remus had been on the train purely because Jade was terrified of what Sirius Black might do. That was a conversation for another time, maybe after he’d had a good nights sleep.

Jade walked Harry up to Gryffindor tower and made sure that all the students were okay before saying goodnight to him, and the teenager hugged her a little longer than he might have wanted to admit to calm himself down.

 

 

Jade realised on her very first class of the term, that she wasn’t going to be able to survive the entire year at this rate.

Her nerves were stretched thin enough as it was, without the added looming presence of the dementors. What really, really didn’t help was the fact that as they were on the edge of the castle grounds, it meant that by being in the greenhouse she was significantly closer.

 

-

After the classes finished, Jade went to the staff room, managing to drink a large firewhisky.

She was deathly pale, dark circles under her eyes and a sharp look on her face, jaw clenched hard, sitting down on one of the armchairs facing the fire and looked like she was going to throw up.

Severus and Remus were at opposite ends of the room, and managed to make eye contact for half a second before Flitwick spoke.

“Are you alright dear?”

“No. I think I’ll probably quite before the year is over”

“Now Jade, don’t say anything too rashly, you might get accustomed to their presence”

She looked nauseas again and shook her head, standing quickly “No. No I can’t do this, all I can hear all the time is….”

Looking like she might throw up, Jade flew out the room, the door slamming behind her.

 

All of the teachers looked at each other sympathetically and were quiet for a second. It was well known that the more time one spent around Dementors the worse they were affected subsequently. Jade had spent three months surrounded constantly by then in Azkaban, and her worst memories were ringing constantly in her ears, whilst the other teachers were able to carry on as normal unless they were right alongside them. Jade was being badly affected even all the way up at the castle.

 

Remus left to follow Jade and Severus wordlessly followed him out the staff room, down the empty corridors and called to stop the other man.

“Lupin, Lupin stop”

He turned, looking awkward now he was being faced with the potions professor, a man who made no bones about the fact he hated Remus.

Severus shook his head ever so slightly, voice impossibly quiet. “No, I’ll speak to her. She hates people seeing her cry”

He hated even having to talk to Remus but he knew that the man knew about he and Jade dating again, so there wasn’t really anything to hide. They were standing on either side of the narrow corridor, and Severus leant with his back against the cold stone.

Remus looked a little surprised “god, you really are in love with her aren’t you”

“My private life is none of your business”

“It is when you’re having it away with one of my best friends”

Snape just pushed himself off the wall fluidly and shook his head “goodnight Lupin” and stalked off down the corridor, leaving a very smug looking Remus.

-

Jade had thrown up twice after getting back to her room, shaking and sitting in her pyjamas in front of the fire with a thick blanket over her shoulders and around her body.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when Severus came through the fire using the floo from his own rooms, quickly moving out the way.

“Are you alright?”

She just shrugged “I guess”

“Have you had a drink?”

She shook her head

“Do you want one?”

She just shook her head again and he sat down beside her, taking off his outer robes, waistcoat, undoing the top buttons of his shirt, and then kicking off his shoes before spreading his legs in front of him and leaning back a little.

“Have you been sick?”

“Yes. A lot”

He simply nodded and looked at the fire before she glanced at him “if you’ve come to have a go at me-“

“-I’m not having a go, and I’m not going to force you to change your mind. What you do is up to you. I learned a long, long time ago not to try and change Jade Greenlake’s mind trust me. We’ll talk about it in the morning if you still feel the same. I’m just here if you need me”

Jade nodded and gratefully leant her head on his shoulder.

“Thank you. Today has been, well, it has been truly awful”

“I can imagine. Lupin wanted to come and see you but I thought he’d try and talk you out of it”

“Thank you. You always know what to say don’t you?”

Severus just smiled and turned his head to kiss her hair gently.

“I give it a go”

Jade stood up, a wave of nausea making her rush to the bathroom and being sick once again.

She cleaned her mouth with magic and came slowly back into the living room, seeing that Severus was now standing beside the fireplace with a worried look as she sat heavily on the sofa.

“Jade, can I ask you something without you biting my head off about it?”

She just shrugged and he looked visibly awkward before speaking “I think we need to check that this isn’t just you reacting to the dementors. You’ve been unwell for a few days, you’re tired all the time, and well, we’re not exactly careful are we. You have the potion but that’s not 100% and we haven’t exactly been using any muggle methods have we?”

Jade was trying to catch up with his words “what are you trying to say? I literally don’t know what you mean about muggle methods?”

“Pills, condoms, I don’t know what they do”

“I still don’t have a clue…”

“I think we need to check you’re not pregnant”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking with me. All the kudos and comments are always sooooooo appreciated and you are all amazing


	32. Chapter 32

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, the students finally find out about Severus and Jade and he gets some advice from a friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy.  
> Let me know your thoughts.  
> We've met Martha before way back in Season 3!  
> My god how are we on chapter 32 already?

Jade looked baffled, staring back at Severus for about 80 seconds before managing to shake her head, voice quiet “no… well it isn’t possible”

Severus spoke gently as he could see her thinking wildly and sat down on the sofa facing towards her. “Look, just stay calm and think about it”

There was clearly a lot going on in Jade’s head but she managed half a nod and half a shake of her head “no. Well, yes. Well – I mean… I guess it is possible, I don’t always remember the contraception potion but then again they always said I’d be unlikely to get pregnant… but I can’t be. Sev I just can’t”

He pulled a face “The only way you can definitely **_not_** be pregnant is if you’ve never had sex, and as someone who has had an awful lot of sex with you recently, I can tell you that there’s a very real possibility you might be”

Jade was counting on her fingers before she spoke “I can’t be… it must be the dementors affecting me… I had my period really recently, I can’t do a test or a potion for another-” she counted on her hands for another few seconds “-two weeks, at the earliest. Sev, I **can’t** be, can I?”

Her expression was unreadable, and he just leant over, took her hands and made sure that she was looking at him and calming down. “Jade, whatever happens, we’ll find out when we can, and then we go from there. I love you, and that isn’t dependant on the outcome of that test”

-

Jade spent the next few days in an almost fugue state, teaching her classes with a patronus slinking around the greenhouse, though sometimes the silvery white ghostly jaguar just slept on the edge on the front workbench beside where Jade stood to teach, a gently comforting presence.

She still felt awful, but it was the knot of worry over whether she could be pregnant that added to her problems, and the dementors twice drifted over the boundary line. Whilst it wasn’t far, it was only the first week of teaching and Jade didn’t think it was a good start.

Harry seemed to have cheered up since the incident on the train, and Severus and Lupin both reported back to her that he was doing well enough in classes. Harry was a middling student in most classes, and there were others that he was very good at, and it was only really Divination that she wasn’t too bothered about, as even in the first week of term she could see that he wasn’t interested.

The daily messages from friends in the Ministry confirmed what the Prophet could only speculate, that there was no headway on the Sirius Black investigation, which just made her more anxious and more nauseous.

 

As it was the first week back the classes finished on Thursday and everyone had the Friday off. It was for various reasons, and all of the sports, clubs and hobbies had trials and sign ups on the Friday, and the teachers and student had a less full on first week.

Severus had decided to go and see Claire and Jacob on the Friday, but Jade had been reluctant, deciding to stay at the school and look in on Harry.

 

That was how Severus Snape – former Death Eater- found himself at the little house speaking to his best friend, who was a Muggle.

He’d apparated nearby and walked up, finding Claire playing with the baby in the front room whilst their friend Martha used her wand to make some teddies and toys dance around and the little boy squealed in delight.

They knew he had been coming so Claire just smiled up at him “Morning. Jacob’s in the garden”

 

Jacob was picking the blackberries off the thorny jumble at the back of the garden when Severus came down, looking sweaty as it was another warm day already, even though it was still before midday.

“Hiya. I would ask you to use magic and help me but Claire’s annoyed at me for something and she can see out the window and is going to get annoyed if I have help”

“What did you do?”

Jacob looked at him with a weary expression “no clue mate. Women are not easy to understand. Claire is an amazing, wonderful woman who is about 30 times smarter than me but - oh yeah I remember now. I called her hormonal. Went down **_exceedingly_** well”

Severus laughed and sat down on the little bench, arms crossed and jean clad legs crossed at the knee “you’re a muggle-“

“Last time I checked, yeah”

“What do you do about condoms?”

Jacob nearly fell in the bush he was so taken aback, clearly baffled “what do you mean condoms?”

Severus frowned “I really don’t know how descriptive you want me to...”

Jacob laughed gently, taking a step back from the brambles “you mean what are they or...?”

“no, Christ no. I know what they do, trust me, I’ve used them before, but not since I was about 15. I don’t even know where muggles get them from to be honest. That’s what I meant”

Jacob was clearly holding in a laugh. The pair had been close friends for so long that he was used to this sort of conversation “ah I see. Well most supermarkets and pharmacies will do them. Probably easier than it was 15 years ago to be honest”

Jacob glanced over Severus’ pensive expression “I thought you two were looking to have kids?”

“I don’t know... Jade’s so up and down, you know?”

Jacob widened his eyes briefly in a _‘you don’t have to tell me’_ sort of expression. “Uh, yes, I’m well aware trust me. I bought you had potions for that kind of thing?”

“They’re not really that effective”

“Who’d have thought the muggles had better solutions than you eh? My word what has my life become sitting with a wizard talking about potions”

That made Severus laugh and Jacob ran his dirtied and blackberry stained hands down his trousers “Can I ask you something and you’ll be straight with me? There’s no one else in ear shot, it’s just you and me, what’s on your mind?”

“Nothing”

“Is it that new teacher? Claire told me he was friends with Jade’s brother and this lunatic who’s on the run. Can’t be easy being around someone who was such a shit to you at school”

“It’s not that. I mean, I don’t like him, but it’s not that”

“You can tell me anything, you know that”

Severus sighed “you have to promise you won’t say anything to anyone”

“We didn’t tell anyone anything when you were dropping by and you were a death eater so don’t worry. To be fair I didn’t know what that was at the time but still. You’re my best mate I won’t say anything, even to Claire”

“Jade might be pregnant”

“As in pregnant-pregnant. Like with a **_baby_**? Like... you mean two might be having a kid?”

“I guess so”

“Well congratulations. Why are you asking about condoms then? Seems a bit late if you’ve already got her pregnant?”

“Because there’s a chance she’s not pregnant”

“Haven’t you got spells to work this out?”

“It’s too early for them, and I said I’d collect her a muggle pregnancy test today but I’d say it’s likely to be still quite early... we might have to wait. She’s been reacting to the dementors around the castle so it might be that but I hope- I mean- it might be a pregnancy”

“You know you slipped there don’t you. You said ‘I hope’, even though outside of your friends and Harry, no one is even aware you’re together are they?”

Severus just glanced back at the house to check no one was walking up and in ear shot as Jacob continued “Also, why bother with condoms if she’s  
Pregnant? Seems a bit.... late... doesn’t it?”

“When she realised there was a possibility I couldn’t read Jade’s expression. She didn’t look excited, worried, upset or anything, just blank. Now, she’s an author, so she knows how to keep her expression guarded, but I don’t know if she’d be upset if she was pregnant, or upset to find out she wasn’t. If she’s not I’d rather hold off until... we’ll just hold off until we’re on the same page”

Jacob shrugged “mate, there’s no ‘good’ time to have a kid. There’s always going to be something to hold you back or a reason to wait. Happens to everyone. You just need to find out and go from there”  
\--  
  
He didn’t really feel much better after their chat but the two men went back into the house, and he knew for a fact that Jacob wouldn’t say anything, and he knew his friend was right. There was nothing they could do either way until they knew.

Severus helped Claire prepare some brunch for them all, despite the fact he wasn’t really very good with cooking. He was distracted by looking at the baby for most of the time they were picking at the food, and he just felt so unsettled and had to go outside for air.

Martha was sat on the low wall outside, looking at the sun and grinned when she saw Severus at the door.

“You come to keep me company? Where’s your better half?”

“Jade? She’s at the school, she’s not keen on leaving Harry at the moment”

She frowned “isn’t Remus there? He’s not going to let anything happen to him is he”  
Severus had almost forgotten that Martha had been dating Sirius during the end of the war, so had become quite close to Remus as well.

“He’s there but J is very on edge at the moment”

Martha nodded with a somber expression “I guess we don’t really know what Sirius could be up to”

He made a noise of agreement and sat down beside her “you miss him?”

“I miss Sirius, he was my friend and boyfriend and he was great. I miss that person, I don’t miss Sirius Black the death eater”

Severus nodded slowly “I understand that. Well, I don’t understand as he was never my friend in the first place, but I think Jade is the same. She truly misses the man who was like a second brother to her, but she’s finding it hard level that with the man who caused James and Lily’s deaths”

Martha let out a long sigh “I don’t want to talk about him to be honest. Did I tell you I’m seeing someone?”

“Anyone I know?”

“Eddie”

“Who?”

“Eddie Fortescue”

“Florian’s son?”

Martha blushed “yes. He’s five years older than me and he asked me out once years ago when I was first at the ministry but I’d just started seeing Sirius so I said no. In the last ten years we’ve both been seeing other people but we’ve sort of... found our way back to each other” she glanced at Severus “a bit like you and Jade”

“Well, neither of you were ever a death eater so it wasn’t such a hurdle to overcome”

Martha nodded vaguely “yes, but jade never stopped loving you. I don’t think you appreciate sometimes how much she loves you. I know she can be a bit cold and distant sometimes but that’s just a product of what she’s gone through. She lied to James and Sirius for years, purely because she loved you. That was her twin and her brother, that’s how she saw him, and you wanted her to keep it quiet so she did. Don’t you think it would have been easier for her to give up on you altogether? You’ve seen the cards she still gets every Valentine’s Day, you’ve seen the way people look at her. She could have had any man in the world that she wanted, but she chose you. She could have had a simpler relationship that didn’t require lying to James and Sirius, but she chose you. You were the most difficult option but she chose you, and still crosses you. You’re very lucky”

“I know. Trust me I know how lucky I am. I do sometimes wish I hadn’t asked her to keep it a secret”

“What, now or back at school?”

“Both. It’s not been fair on her. Sirius and James would have ripped me to shreds but then again they did that without knowing. Peter and Remus weren’t really the issue, they just went along with it... she shouldn’t have to keep things to herself”

Martha nudged him wither her shoulder “well, there’s still time isn’t there, there’s always time”

“Since when did you become a relationship expert”

“Shut up and go tell Jade you love her”  
  
  
  
Back at the castle Jade had found a shaded area out in the grounds to sit with Harry in the early afternoon, away from everyone else and prepared to talk to Harry about the dementors.

“I can hear someone screaming. A woman”

The colour drained from Jade’s face and she looked away, staring down towards the lake and her voice was slightly caught in her throat “it... do you want me to say?”

“It’s my mum isn’t it?”

Jade just nodded slowly, looking like she was fighting whether to talk or not before finally speaking “yes. Harry it’s Lily you can hear. I’m so sorry”

“It isn’t your fault. What can you hear?”

“When?”

“The dementors. When they’re near, you can hear your worst memory can’t you?”

“When I found out about your father” it wasn’t a lie. Sirius betraying them had led to James’ death by default really.

“Must have been nice, to have a sibling”

“I didn’t know any different really. Never a quiet moment in the Potter household. Trust me Harry, many, many times I wished I was an only child. He was my best friend, despite everything. We were very different people, but he was everything, and hearing about him and your mum was the worst moment of my life. I assumed you’d died too in that moment, and everything just fell out from under me”

Harry just looked sad and Jade learnt against him gently and kissed his head “being able to see you again had been the best thing that’s ever happened to me. That’s why I want to keep you safe. That’s the most important thing in my life now. I’m probably going to be such a boring aunt from now on, but I just need to keep you safe. We’re all we’ve got left”

 

The sun was starting to set when Severus returned, using the floo to go straight to his own rooms so that the students didn’t see him in jeans and a short sleeve t-shirt with his Dark Mark visible. He put the pregnancy test in the bag from the pharmacy in a drawer in his room before showering and changing for dinner.

 

Jade was late to dinner, walking down to the teachers table with a letter in her hands and reading it intently. She sat down on the end of the table beside Remus in the only free seat and her friend glanced over “You alright? Something interesting?”

She glanced up absently “Huh? Yes, well, it’s the latest on the Sirius situation. Nothing much but Scrimgeour asked Kingsley to send me everything they have just in case anything stands out to me, but so far, it’s the same crap”

He sighed and motioned to her empty plate “Not hungry? You need to eat something you look pale”

With a slight eye roll Jade put some salad on her plate but only picked at it, feeling unwell still. Remus saw but said nothing, also not missing when Severus glanced surreptitiously at her down the table.

 

As there had been no classes that day the students were being quite relaxed after dinner finished, and whilst a lot of them had gone up to their common rooms, there was still probably around half of them having hot chocolates, pumpkin juice, and eating more puddings as they sat around on the tables.

Jade was looking over the letter again, and Dumbledore had left as well as about a third of the teachers, including Severus who realised that she was looking over the letter with Remus and that she would come and find him later.

There was relative calm before suddenly there was a lot of noise from the entrance hallway, just outside the Main Hall, and there was a scream from at least two people and everyone turned around to look and the teachers all looked up but Jade was already on her feet and moving down the Hall before the next set of yelling came.

At that everyone was on their feet and coming down, though Jade was there first. The large front doors were open as it wasn’t quite after hours and it was starting to get dark. She saw immediately that that was where the group of around six students were looking, eyes wide and petrified.

Jade skidded to a halt, wand out and saw what had scared them.

The Dementors had breached the boundaries again, but this time they were near the castle, they had passed the lake and the sight of them had petrified the students and filled them with fear.

The entrance hallway was ice cold, and there was about thirty over the grounds, making Jade’s own blood run cold.

The students and teachers weren’t even at the entrance before she had cast a patronus that bounded down the grass. It caused a lot of them to back off but they retreated past the lake and Jade turned to McGonnaghal and Flitwick who were the first teachers there, along with several of the students and she didn’t speak to them so much as give an order.

“Stay here with the students. Something’s disturbed them to enter the grounds and it’s probably dangerous”

Her patronus had disappeared and she cast another one as she transformed into her animagus form, a white ghostly jaguar running out the entrance beside a black one disappearing out over the grass.

The air was still frozen, everyone’s breath misting in front of them, and Flitwick quickly cast protective spells over the assorted, terrified students and the entrance.

The sky seemed to have gotten very dark all of a sudden, and everyone felt sick and nauseous, none more so than Severus, who made a move to follow Jade out the castle but McGonnaghal had grabbed his arm to stop him.

“No, she’s an auror, she will be fine, and you don’t know where she is now. She will be fine, just wait”

 

It was nearly fifteen minutes later when one of the seventh years -clearly with the best eyesight- shouted “There- she’s back!” and everyone squinted into the darkness, as the sloping form of a black jaguar made its way up the grass, and she transformed back into her human form at the entrance.

Jade was covered in blood, mud and scratches.

Severus stepped forward, grabbing the arm which was covered in blood “You-”

“It’s not my blood. I’m fine. There’s some **_mental_** stuff in the forest, that’s what spooked the dementors, but it is sorted, I’m fine, a bit shaken but fine”

He forgot the students were there, still holding on to her forearm, being watched by what seemed like the entire school and faculty. “Do you know how dangerous the forest is, you could have been _killed_ ”

Jade just grinned, also barely aware of everyone around them “But I didn’t, I’m fine”

“But that’s not the _point_ ”

Severus let out a breath he wasn’t aware that he had been holding and did one of the most out of character things in his life, and leaned in to kiss her. Jade kissed back, hands on his shoulders and leaning up on the balls of her feet to reach him.

The kiss only lasted about ten seconds before they both seemed to realise that they had an audience.

They moved apart and the expressions of the stunned faces watching them were all various stages of shock, amazement or amusement. Remus was trying to hide a massive smirk and clapped his hands “Right, well, maybe the Prefects could take the students back to their dormitories?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think we can all assume that the students who saw them kiss might just go and tell everyone else!
> 
> Love to you all. As always thanks for the kudos and the comments you are all amazing.


	33. Chapter 33

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pregnancy test time....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the comments on the last chapter really cracked me up.  
> Hope you like the one student clapping, and what Harry says!  
> Enjoy x

One student clapped three times and then their hands awkwardly dropped as Remus ushered them along, still trying not to smirk too obviously.  
  
Jade looked around with no awkwardness and a barely contained smile as the students started to file up the stairs, conspicuously quiet before they got far enough away, they all erupted into burst of noise, all clearly discussing what had just happened. Most had gone upstairs towards their common rooms, and the Slytherin’s had taken the steps down, with Flitwick going with them, all the students going back to their Houses.

McGonnaghal waited until the students had gone and glanced between the two slightly sheepish looking teachers, who were still standing very close to each other.

“will the dementors be a threat again?”

Jade was obviously surprised that that was the first thing she had asked about and nodded, remembering she was still covered in blood and dirt.

“Oh, not immediately, they were spooked by things in the forest. I’ll speak to Hagrid tomorrow and I’ll speak to the Ministry as well”

Minerva nodded then her eyes flickered between the two of them “Right, well, Jade I think you should have a shower. It probably isn’t a good idea to be on your own if you’re a bit shaken up. Severus, I assume you can stay with her”

It wasn’t really a question and there was a slight twinkle in her eye, the intimation very clear and Severus just nodded stiffly “Yes, that’s fine”

He took a hold of Jade’s forearm to walk her back down towards her rooms and it was as they were nearly out of the entrance Hall that she called out to them.

“Jade? Severus?”

They both turned and saw their former teacher looking at them with a warm expression “I for one am very happy you’ve finally decided to stop hiding, I’ve seen the way you look at each other, I’m glad you’ve found each other”

The pair glanced at each other before heading down to Jade’s rooms in the empty corridors.

Jade felt hear heart swell. She wanted him. She loved him, and she didn’t give a shit who knew.  
It had never been her decision to keep it quiet, even when she was a student she’d been willing to go public, and ignore James and Sirius and the nightmare they would have been.

They were silent as they moved down to her rooms, though Severus let his hand slip from her forearm to her hand and they walked hand in hand.

As the bedroom door closed behind him, Jade reached for Severus and kissed him.

He’d been so worried how she would react after his unplanned public kiss, but realised quickly that she wasn’t exactly upset.

Quickly he turned them so that her back was against the door and his body was against hers, resuming the kiss until she pulled back, breathing heavily and cheeks flushed.

“Shower. Can we get in the shower, I’m filthy”

Severus bit his tongue to stop himself making a remark about that and they kissed hurriedly between shrugging out of their clothes, windlessly locking the bedroom door, and making their way into her huge walk in shower.

They were kissing furiously under the warm water as it washed away the blood and dirt from Jade, and she had her back against the tiles and groaning as he kissed down her neck, the passion electric between them.

Severus seamlessly picked her up, so Jade’s long legs were wrapped around her middle and she was braced against the wall.

Severus  pulled back, somehow stopping himself and frowned “but the baby-“

“If I am pregnant, which I might not be- don’t flatter yourself, even at full term it’s still safe to have sex”  
  
He didn’t need much encouragement, and was glad that he’d remembered the silencing charms, given the amount of noise Jade was making.

They collapsed on the bed afterwards, both so exhausted they barely managed any conversation.

 

Harry was having a much less exciting evening. He, Ron, Hermione and some of their friends had been back up at the Common Room so had missed the dementors and the kiss, but there was a sudden, loud explosion of noise as the straggling students came back at the same time.

“Oi, Potter, did you know?!”

Harry glanced up, seeing Cormac McLaggen shouting at him over the chattering, laughing and bemused students, who were now all looking at him, waiting for an answer.

“Did I know what?”

“The dementors just breached the boundary again and your aunt went all Auror and kicked their ass, and then came back in the school and Snape kissed her. She didn’t look too upset either”

Harry just rolled his eyes and tipped his head back with an exasperated noise “Oh for gods sake”

“So you did know? Are they going out then?”

“I thought they were only going out when they were here?”

“Why would she date him, I mean, what?”

“Maybe she likes the dark and brooding type?”

“Is he going to be your uncle?”

Harry just stood up “God. I’m going to bed”

He wasn’t as annoyed about their relationship coming out as he had imagined he would be, he was more annoyed with the insistent questions.

 

In the morning Severus woke to a note on the cold side of Jade’s bed that simply read ‘gone to the Ministry to discuss Dementors. Auror meeting at 9 on a Saturday – ridiculous! I’ll be back later, enjoy being the talk of the school. I love you x’.

He knew there was several Senior Auror meetings going on and that to keep her licence Jade was forced to attend them, though she generally said nothing and left as soon as possible.

He considered facing breakfast with everyone else, but decided to just stay in bed and have a House Elf bring him something to eat. He’d be the talk of the school regardless, may as well give them time to talk.

 

True to form, Jade said nothing through the Auror meeting, realising that in her early 30’s she was still younger than any other Senior Aurors had been when she had initially been promoted to the position.

She quickly mentioned what had happened with the dementors, and Kingsley looked exhausted but said he’d speak to the people arranging them, and then everyone spoke about the Sirius Black investigation, but there was nothing new, and she apparated back to Hogsmeade without speaking to anyone.

 

It wasn’t as hot a day as it had been for the last month or so, and as she entered the school grounds, Jade realised that the Gryffindor quidditch team was still practicing – their first of the year- and she headed off towards the stadium first.

They were nearly finished and she waved to Wood who landed down near her with a grin, and she appreciated that he clearly didn’t care about the kiss, as his first question was “Professor, did you **_see_** Weasley doing a Vallis Fall? My god that was amazing. Everything okay?”

“Can I speak to Harry? Or are you still going?”

“We’ve still got half an hour but he’s the seeker, so he practices by himself mostly anyway, I can spare him for a bit, I’ll send him down to you”

Jade sat down on the grass with her back against the wooden fence at the bottom of the stadium, seeing Wood flying over to Harry, who spotted her and landed down near her, sitting opposite her and leaning back on his hands.

“God, you look so much like your dad like that. I don’t even mean physically, the mannerisms when you get off the broom, it’s identical”

“I’ve heard he loved quidditch”

“Definitely”

There was a pause and Harry realised how awkward his aunt looked and ruffled his hair “Jade, I’m not going to call him _uncle_ you know that right?”

That made her laugh and she saw the slight amusement in his eyes “I’m sorry if you’re embarrassed”

“Nah, not really. Everyone always seems to find a reason to talk about me anyway, this is better than calling me the heir of Slytherin at least, or saying I was trying to kill muggle borns”

Jade nodded “I know, but I understand that you don’t really like Severus, but I want you to know that you and I are family, we’re all we’ve got, okay. Nothing will ever be more important to me than you, okay? No matter where or when, you are more important to me. Do you understand?”

Harry looked visibly relaxed by that before Jade nudged him with her converse “Come on, back in the air before Wood has a go at me”

 

Jade wasn’t too sure where Severus was and so assumed he was brewing potions and so went to find Remus, looking around his living room before sitting down in his comfy armchair as he sat with a smirk on the sofa opposite her.

“Well, that was a surprise”

She didn’t have to ask what he was talking about.

“Yeah, to me too”

“I don’t know who was more surprised really, you or Severus. The students were thrilled at least, a great bit of gossip”

“Ah, well, they’re teenagers, something else will come along and be more interesting next week”

“I wouldn’t bank on that. You said that finding out you two were going at it at school amazed them all, can you imagine finding out you’re having it away now, as adults?”

Jade just laughed and they moved on, and she was glad that unlike Peter, James and Sirius, Remus always knew when to let something go.

-

 

Before dinner Jade used the floo from Remus’ room to Severus’ to see if he was there, and found him sprawled out across his sofa, reading a potions journal intently but looking up as she arrived.

“How was the Ministry?”

“Shite, as usual. No news on Sirius, they’re going to sort the dementors. I managed to speak to Harry though”

“Oh yeah? How’s he taken it?”

Jade pulled off her jacket and boots as she spoke “Yeah, surprisingly okay. He’s more annoyed with the 10,0000 questions than with everyone knowing. He said he wasn’t going to find you Uncle though”

Severus snorted with a laugh “I don’t want that either, don’t worry. I haven’t actually faced any of the students today, been busy brewing the wolfsbane and using the weekend as an excuse to ignore the students”

“Well I’ve got to go an see Hufflepuff today to check in with them, despite the fact I’m not technically their bloody head of house, I haven’t seen Sprout for ages so apparently that’s for me to do for some reason”

She yawned and sat down on the sofa beside him, clearly tired.

“Why don’t you have a nap?”

“I’m not tired, I’ll just rest my eyes”

Severus just nodded, and she was asleep within five minutes, her brain giving her a memory rather than a dream for once.

-

_They were in fifth year, and Jade was sat in her incredibly rumpled uniform, hair in a once neat bun now loose with strands falling out, and an incredibly stressed look on her face._

_She was the only person in the Common room at that time, poring over an essay and text book, not even looking up as Sirius, James, Remus and Peter came in, the cloak and map in their hands. They had clearly been planning or executing a prank._

_Seeing his sister, James glanced at the other Marauders and muttered “I’ll see you in the dormitory” and he sat down on the opposite side of the small table._

_James frowned “you look exhausted”_

_“What time is it?”_

_He glanced at his watch “3.28 in the morning”_

_Jade groaned and saw that the rest of the marauders were heading up to the dormitories, looking exhausted and James sat down on the opposite side of the table, looking annoyingly fresh faced._

_“You’ve stayed up until now to do an essay you have all weekend to finish?”_

_“I’ve got so much to do James I just started this one and wanted to finish rather than trying to get back into it tomorrow”_

_“Look, bug, can I just say something?”_

_“You’d probably sat it even if I said no, wouldn’t you?”_

_“Pretty much. Look, you work so bloody hard for everything, you work yourself to the bone for everything and you deserve it, you deserve all those amazing grades, and you deserve the amazing job you’re probably going to get when we finish. Just don’t forget that you also deserve to be happy. I know you keep your private life from us and I do understand that, but you really deserve to be happy, someone’s going to make you happy and you’re going to have a bunch of kids and you’re probably going to take over the world or something. You’re going to be happy, because you deserve it, just don’t forget that”_

_Jade looked surprised, though she realised that this burst of sentiment was brought on by their parents falling ill, and he was thinking ahead more than James usually did._

_“Thanks... thanks James”_

_He stood up, taking his glasses off to clean them on his jumper “I know, I’m amazing. You don’t have to tell me, I already knew. Just promise me if you have kids you’ll give them better names than our sets of grandparents gave our mum and dad. Euphemia and Fleamont? Merlin’s beard what were they thinking”_

_“Well at least we got normal enough names. I guess you’ve already planned what you and lily are calling yours? Do you write it in the back of your notebook with little love hearts?”_

_He smirked as he put the glasses back on “piss off. Nah I’ve always like the name Harry, that’s what they were going to call you if you’d been a boy. Half the family tree has had the name”_

_Jade thought for a minute “I’ve always like Rose, or maybe if I have a boy I’ll name him after you. Yeah, baby James or Rose”_

_Her brother grinned at that “too right, name him after greatness. Now come on, get to bed, you look like shit”_

-

Jade woke up blearily, head resting on Severus and sprawled over the sofa.

“Merlin, how long was I asleep for?”

“Only about 45 minutes. You were clearly exhausted and needed the sleep”

Jade yawned and stretched as hard as she could, before unfastening her bra and removing it without having to take off her short sleeved top.

“I guess we’ve missed dinner, shall we get a house elf to bring something here? Once my bra’s off I can’t be bothered to put it back on and face the world again”

He kissed her hair gently and stilled a little, testing the waters before asking.

“Do you need a wee?”

Jade glanced up from the muggle newspaper with a baffled expression “I really don’t want to be that type of couple that keep tabs on-“

He cut her off “no. Merlin, no. That’s not what I meant at all. The pregnancy test, the Muggle one, that’s how you do it”

“What? I wee on it? Muggles are mental aren’t they”

Severus just nodded “you want to try it? It might be too early but I can always get another one”

“Uh, no, lets give it a go”

  
As he got the packet out of the drawer it was hidden in, Severus tipped her chin up so she was facing him.

“What do you want this to say? You’ve not said anything either way, and I don’t know what you want”

“I don’t want to… get my hopes up… it is very unlikely after what Bellatrix did that I’d ever get pregnant, and if I let myself get too hopeful then… shall we just see?”

 

Jade took the test, put the cap back on, and came out from the bathroom, seeing Severus all tense and angular, a nervous ball of energy.

“We’ve got to wait a few minutes. Are you okay?”

She looked curiously at the test as she spoke “I don’t know. It might be too early to know either way right now, but I don’t want to get my hopes up but I want… we’ll have to see what the test says won’t we”

Jade glanced up “I don’t understand what the muggles have done here. There’s a little window here with a big plus sign on it. What the hell does that mean”

Severus looked up so fast he nearly hurt his neck “a plus sign?”

“Yeah”

“Jade, that means you’re pregnant”

“Oh”

They just looked at each other for the longest time, before identical pairs of wide grins appeared.

“We’re- I’m – pregnant? We’re having a baby?”

Severus took the test from her and checked the plus sign against the back of the packet and nodded, looking somewhere between shocked and emotional.

“Yes, yes you’re pregnant. Jade you’re _pregnant_ ”

She had tears in her eyes and kissed him like life depended on it “ ** _we_** are pregnant. Sev, I don’t know what to say, I love you”

Severus cupped her face in both his large hands and looked at her with nothing short of total love and adoration “You clever beautiful, amazing woman, god I love you”

 

Jade had burst into emotional tears and that had really surprised Severus, and he realised just how much she had wanted to be pregnant, but had been telling herself it wasn’t going to happen.

They sat on the sofa, with Jade curled into him, sitting sideways across him, and Severus let his warm hands work under her t-shirt and rest on her stomach.

“There’s a baby in there”

She smiled with tear stained cheeks “Hopefully just the one. Twins run in my family. Me and James, my mum had a twin sister, and my dad’s father had a twin brother too”

He shook his head “No, how about one step at a time, shall we?”

His fingers ghosted over her flat stomach, amazed that there was a life in there “there’s so much to sort out, but I’m too happy to even think about that right now. Oh _god_ what if it’s a girl, I wouldn’t know how to look after a girl”

“You’ll be amazing, don’t panic. We can find out quite early if it’s a boy or a girl, so there’s time to adjust. When we were in school James and I had a conversation about children’s names, and I said I wanted Rose, or James”

His fingers gently moved again as he thought “Okay, well we’ll see if you’re a Rose or a James then”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You are all amazing, I assume someone is still reading this - ??


	34. Chapter 34

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jade and Severus face the students and teachers after *that* kiss.  
> Hagrid gets some good news.  
> Harry and Jade have a heart to heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surely Remus Lupin would be just loving seeing Severus and Jade being awkward, and I don't think he would do anything to make it easier!

The rest of the weekend was spent in blissed out comfort in Jade’s rooms. She was exhausted, the emotions of the whole thing taking a bit of a toll on her, and they had just asked the house elves to bring food to the room.

It was partially to be able to spend some time just the two of them, but also they were both reluctant to face the rest of the school. Neither Severus nor Jade were naïve enough to think that their kiss wouldn’t be the talk of the entire school by the time they had to face them on Monday for classes.

As it was still probably incredibly early in the pregnancy, Jade and Severus had decided that they wouldn’t tell anyone until they could verify with a medic- be it a muggle one or at St Mungo’s- that everything was okay, they both felt like it was tempting fate a little bit to tell Harry and their own friends without getting the confirmation that the baby was okay.

She felt generally okay, but the idea of facing the students on Monday was starting to get to her, and Jade found that Monday came around far too quickly.

 

Severus had left for breakfast when Jade started to do her hair for about the fourth time, eventually giving up and using magic to put it half up, half down so that the tangle of long curls wasn’t going to fall in her face whilst teaching. She pulled on a pair of comfortable black trousers that were skinny fit but not too tight for teaching, a lose white cotton t-shirt and a thin black cardigan. Strictly speaking the teachers were meant to dress in robes or reasonably formally but Jade had regularly taught in converse or black jeans and no one had told her off so far so she wasn’t too bothered but thought she’d dress reasonably well so it was one less thing for people to talk about.

Breakfast was already in full swing when she arrived, ignoring the sharp rise in whispers and the fact that every single eye in the hall was on her.

Jade sat down between Severus and Remus and poured herself some pumpkin juice, her fellow Gryffindor smirking “ready to face the students?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be”

“You know I’ve literally heard your names being muttered all morning even before you arrived. This should be a fascinating day”

Severus rolled his eyes, piling bacon on to his plate “don’t you have anything better to do than listen to teenage gossip?”

“No not really, not when you two staring daggers at me makes it **so** fun”

Severus said nothing, shaking his head and tucking into his food as Jade glanced at Remus “Today is going to remind me why I never wanted to teach isn’t it?”

He just laughed “I think so. Though to be fair I can’t see that anyone is going to say anything to either of you you’re both pretty scary aren’t you”

Jade sipped her pumpkin juice and glanced over the hall, seeing lots of pairs of eyes looking intently up at the teachers table and flickering away when they noticed she was looking towards them.

“Remus, just kill me now?”

-

 

Near the end of breakfast Jade noticed that Trelawney had left which meant the space beside Hagrid was spare, and Jade quickly grabbed some toast and hurried over, perching herself on the table so that her back was to the students and talking to Hagrid about the centaurs in the forest. The dementors had been spooked after the centaurs had been fighting, which had spooked the thestrals, and the commotion had set them off. She trusted that Hagrid was going to be able to sort it and they had a quick talk about it.

Her feet were resting on the seat and her body was twisted towards him.

“Oh and I’ve got some exciting news for you. I’ve sort of been badgering people at the Ministry about it for a while now, I think Rufus called it ‘causing a nuisance’ but I think you’ll be quite happy”

He looked curious and Jade just tapped her nose “I’ll meet you after the last class? I’m down in the lower greenhouse so it’s not far to yours, and I can meet that hippogriff and tell you all about it?”

He nodded with a smile “sounds good”

She appreciated that he hadn’t said anything about her and Severus, and she knew that it was the sort of thing that Hagrid really didn’t care about.

On the Gryffindor table Harry was trying to eat his breakfast and ignore the talk about his aunt and his least favourite teacher, but it was when Cormac McLaggen glanced up at her sat on the table talking to Hagrid and rather loudly said “God I’d definitely give her a go if she offered, I can’t blame Snape” that Harry had had enough, picked his bag up and left early for class for the first time in his life.

-

 

Jade’s first class of the day was a double period with the seventh years. When she got there they were already al sat down, and it was clear she was the topic of conversation. It wasn’t hard to work out, considering that they were all talking animatedly, and then everyone dropped to a hush as they saw her at the front of the greenhouse.

Everyone was conspicuously quiet looking at her with a mix of trepidation and interest.

“Right, page 68 of the books. If anyone has forgotten their own one can you share with the person next to you or you can borrow my spare. Now, this is your final year, and its only the first few weeks but we have a _lot_ to fit in, so can we settle down and get started please. Do the reading first, then we are going to have a look at the actual petals themselves”

The class was a mix of all four Houses, as it was a smaller class as it was the final year and everyone sort of glanced at each other and then Jade, and then back to the books.

They all went on to read, a few glancing at Jade furtively as they read through the chapter.

Jade knew full well that some of them weren’t paying enough attention to the reading and about fifteen minutes later they were all finished, and the giant orange petals were passed around so that everyone had a few in their pairs.

“Right, can you dissect, take notes in your pairs, be careful however. These aren’t poisonous but they are rather caustic, if handled incorrectly you’ll be in the hospital wing for the rest of the day. Give me a shout if you need any help, and you’ve got half an hour”

Jade went back to writing up notes for the practice exam she was planning for them around Christmas. There was mutterings around the greenhouse but she chose to ignore them, tuning it out as most of them were still dissecting the plants but despite trying, she could still hear the conversations, even though they were attempting to whisper.

_“I mean, maybe she didn’t want him to kiss her”_

_“Nah, she looked really happy about it. Don’t you remember the article in the Prophet about the fact they were dating at school?”_

_“So you think they’re dating now? I can’t see it?”_

_“Well, you can’t really help who you fall in love with can you. I mean, it’s not like they’re going to be going around having it off in the corridors, they’re still teachers”_

_“I know, but… I guess some people are into the whole tall, dark and quiet type maybe?”_

Jade slammed her hands down on the bench, making every single student jump and go quiet simultaneously “if I hear one more mention of myself or Professor Snape in this class I swear to god you’ll all be in detention for the rest of the _fuc_ \- the rest of the year. Do I make myself clear?”

The sea of shocked faces blinked back at her and nodded, none of them missing the fact that she had barely contained herself from saying **‘ _fuck’_** in front of them all. Everyone looked back at their notes and the dissection with utter silence, and Jade caught Lucas Farris’s eyes and saw him try to contain a laugh that lifted her spirits a bit, and everyone was incredibly concentrated for the rest of the class.

It was pretty clear that the seventh years had told the other students in other years, as everyone looked like frightened little bush babies with wide eyes and cautious expressions, and not one person said a single thing -even under their breath- about Jade and Severus.

The fourth year Slytherin’s had looked at Jade with increased fascination and interest considering he fact she was clearly having some sort of connection with their head of house who they all idolised a little.

The day wasn’t actually as bad as either Jade or Severus had imagined, mostly because Jade’s had been warned, and no one was stupid enough to whisper in the back of one of Snape’s classes, though he caught some of the girls looking at him with definite interest, clearly trying to work out what the attraction was.  
-  
  
After the last class Jade trailed down to Hagrid’s. She had been introduced to the hippogriff who had taken to her quite well and was eating out of her hand as she sat on the edge of the wooden pen, legs dangling down as Hagrid fixed one of the posts.

“So, you know your umbrella?”

He glanced up warily and she realised that he assumed that as a member of the ministry, she might be about to eat him out and waved a hand “I’m not getting you in trouble, is actually the opposite really”

He looked confused and Jade stroked Buckbeak’s face gently “Well, after last year, with the chamber of secrets being opened, that was definitive proof that Aragog didn’t kill that student when you were here. Obviously that’s what your expulsion was largely based on, and you were meant to have disposed of the broken wand, not hidden it in an umbrella. I’ve had a word with some people at the ministry, well, about 20 people, no one was sure which department it was, and Kingsley and Rufus were on my side so that helped a bit. Um, well the official line is that after your wand was snapped, you’ve kept it in a box since as a memento, Rufus really didn’t believe that but I don’t think he actually cares what you did with it. As there’s proof now, you’re allowed to practice magic again- legally. Strings were pulled all over the place but as of the start of this term, you can practice openly. If you want then Olivander seems fairly sure he can fix it, and I’m happy to give you some lessons to pick up where you left off, and Remus, Albus, Filius, Minerva, well, all the teachers have offered to do their bit”

Hagrid just looked like he was in shock, and Jade was about to ask if he was okay before he walked over the pen and picked her up, hugging her so tightly that she made a squeal as all the air seemed to leave her body.  
  
-  
There was some time before dinner and she went up to the staff room, seeing that everyone was there except Severus and Dumbledore, and she assumed they were having a talk together in the Headmaster’s office.

As she closed the door McGonnaghal glanced up from some marking “Ah, Jade, I wanted to have a word”

She threw herself into the chair with a sigh “look, if this is about swearing in front of the seventh years-“

“ ** _What_**?”

She pulled a face “uh, nothing. What’s wrong?”

Minerva gave her a rather cold look, clearly tabling her question about her comment for another time. “No, that is apparently a whole other issue. I wanted to see how it went with the students after Friday, but doesn’t sound like it went well”

“I think they’re all a bit too scared of me now, which is exactly what I want to be honest. Never had them listen to me so intently”

Jade glanced around and realised all the other teachers were watching and listening intently, clearly all with a few questions of their own and she stood up with a sigh.

“Right, I’m giving everyone exactly-“ she glanced at her mothers watch on her wrist, black leather strap and delicate gold and black face “-five minutes for questions and then you can all shut up about it”. She immediately regretted the onslaught of questions.

From Flitwick “How long has it been going on for?”

“Since we were at school”

From Trelawney “Are you living together?”

“No”

From Charity Burbage “so this is serious?”

“Yes, pretty serious” she wasn’t about to mention the pregnancy any time soon.

Irma Pince jumped in “so you and Severus, you’re in love with him?”

“yes”

Poppy Pomfrey grinned “So last year when you had that attack in the middle of the night with your scarring and came up to the Hospital wing, I was right that Severus was in your room, and your little lie that he heard you several floors away was made up?”

Jade shrugged, aware that Poppy had clearly know back then “yes, he was asleep in my room”

Remus looked like he was having the time of his life the more uncomfortable Jade was getting and shouted over the room “Are you two getting _married_?”

She glared daggers at a rather gleeful Lupin “Remus you don’t get a question as you already knew”

“Well that’s grossly unfair”

“Wait, you _knew_?”

“How’s the sex?”

Everyone glanced at the usually quiet professor Sinestra who shrugged “too far?”

Jade laughed but nodded “too far. Aaaaaaaand that’s time up so I’m off, enjoy the evening, it’s been a truly awful day and I’ve still got to go and see the Hufflepuff’s because Sprout is conspicuously not even in the country so someone has to”  
  
-

As Jade went to clear her head on a walk around the school before dinner, she found herself wondering what ever happened to the Marauders Map. Remus didn’t know, and had always assumed Sirius or James had taken it, though there hadn’t been much use for it outside of Hogwarts itself. All of the Marauders and Jade had known the charm to hide their position on the map, so that if it had been confiscated by a teacher or found by another student, then at least no one would know their location. If Jade or any of the Marauders saw it they’d know a location was locked, but no one else outside of that was able to know.

When Jade would find out that the Weasley twins had been making use of it for all this time, it would genuinely warm her heart. She wasn’t exactly a stickler for the rules, and the fact that the legacy of the Marauder’s had been well and truly continued with the use of the map would have made James so happy. The fact that Fred and George - who reminded her in so many ways of Gideon and Fabian, their uncles- had been using it to create mischief, would really make Jade smile. She wished she had it to be able to keep an eye on the comings and going of the castle, but then again she was always keeping her eyes and ears open.

She knew that Harry was coming back from Quidditch training so waited outside the main doors for a few minutes until she saw them coming up the grass, all covered in dirt and grass stains, hair a mess.

She waved at them and Harry broke off from the group, heading over to her in the dimming light, pulling off his quidditch gloves.

“Bad practice? You all look pretty morose?”

“Not fantastic, no”

She gave him a gentle, encouraging smile “You want to take a walk? There’s a courtyard I can show you that no one ever knows about”

He nodded and they walked around the wall and through a small flower and herb garden Harry had never seen in all his time at the school.

“Where is this? I’ve never been here”

She said nothing and opened a small wooden door painted in light green and moved to let him in first “You might recognise this courtyard”

Harry glanced around. It wasn’t a massive area, but it was an enclosed courtyard with ivy climbing up two of the walls, and some little sprites that were emitting small lights from their bodies as they flittered around in the green leaves, the sun starting to lower in the sky. Around the edge of the courtyard there was bedded plants and herbs, a large fountain in the middle of the stone floor.

Harry looked around with a frown “I don’t… I don’t know where I recognise it from?”

Jade smiled and sat on the edge of the fountain “The picture of your parents dancing, that was taken here”

Harry remembered it now, the one in the photo album of his parents dancing in front of a fountain, and looking so unbelievably happy, and he looked around with a gentle smile on his face and sat down beside Jade.

“Thank you”

“For what?”

“For showing me this place. It’s nice to feel… close… to them”

“Nah, I know exactly what you mean. They were very happy here, and they were very happy together. I miss them both too, but they would be so proud of you, and I don’t want you to lose sight of that. I mean, you could work a bit harder on your herbology essays but we’ll forget about that for now” he laughed and she carried on “look, Harry, I know things have been a bit rubbish for you since everyone in the school found out about me and Severus, I just hope it hasn’t been too bad?”

He shrugged noncommittally “Everyone is talking about it, it’s just about the biggest news since Sirius Black escaped Azkaban, I don’t know if people are more confused or surprised, and I’ve been asked if I knew by nearly every student in the school. I just think it’s nice not to be the focus of attention for once. I haven’t had potions or herbology since it all came out as it’s only Monday, but I’m not as bothered as I imagined I would be. I’ll admit I was a bit shocked when you told me in the summer, but I spoke to Hermione about it and she said you’ve been through a lot and you deserve to be happy, and I shouldn’t care who it is with, and it’s not on me to understand”

“Well, I’ll have to thank Miss Granger for her insight. I know you’ve never liked Severus, but I’m glad you didn’t get too upset about it”

Harry took his glasses off and cleaned them on his quidditch jumper as he thought “If you’ve been together on and off since you were 16… and you’re in your 30’s now-”

“Are you calling me old?”

He laughed and put his glasses back on “no, what I was thinking was… if you’re making a proper go of it now then… I guess you’re going to move in together?”

“Harry, we don’t have to talk about this now, I know you don’t want things to change”

Jade had to consciously stop herself from touching her stomach, where she knew there was something growing that was going to change _everything._

Harry kicked his feet on the cobblestones and glanced curiously at the lit up sprites dancing around the ivy “I mean I don’t _want_ to have Professor Snape hanging around all through the summer holidays, I won’t pretend to be excited about it, but Hermione made it super clear you can’t put your life on hold because of me. I’m not calling him **_Uncle Severus_** though”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think poor old Harry just wants a family, and I like the idea that Hermione is the voice of reason - as always.
> 
> Surely no one is stupid enough to gossip about Snape in front of him?????
> 
> Next chapter- Claire and Jacob find out, and we find out a bit more about the pregnancy.
> 
> Thanks for all the comments and kudos recently. You are all fabbbbbbbbbbbbbb!


	35. Chapter 35

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jade and Severus go to the hospital to find out once and for all.  
> Harry gets the map, and our favourite couple decide where to raise their family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posted after lots of wine and without a grammar check so let me know if anything stands out and needs a change!

The rest of the week passed quietly, as far as Hogwarts was concerned at least. The Weasley twins managed their first detentions of the year, with Flitwick losing it, the little teacher screaming at them both at the end of an intolerable charms lesson and they were quite excited to start the year off with their first ones.

Jade and Severus had the rapt attention of all of their students, all of whom had a million questions they wanted to ask but knew they couldn’t really get away with it.

They made sure they weren’t suddenly all over each other in public, but most of the students clocked the way that they were coming in to breakfast around the same time, the slightly longer that their eyes met whilst talking in the corridors between lessons, or over meals.

Terry Boot was **_adamant_** he had seen Professor Snape smile a little when Professor Greenlake had said something over dinner one evening but no one had believed him.

-

The Saturday morning was the first time that Jade and Severus were able to get away together, slipping out the castle early in the morning before most of the students were up, and using the floo to get to Jade’s rather empty apartment before they apparated to the front door of Claire and Jacob’s house.

Neither were ever fans of just taking the floo directly in to someone’s house, even though Claire and Jacob were expecting them, it still seemed a bit more polite to at least knock on the door and not make them jump.

Before apparating Severus had grabbed Jade’s hand to stop her, glancing at her stomach and quietly saying “Side on apparate, just to be safe, what with the baby”

“You can apparate when pregnant Sev”

“Please, just let me worry about you” his eyes glanced to her stomach again before quietly saying “let me worry about you both”

-

Severus was always fascinated at the dynamic between Jacob and Claire, and Jacob with the magical world. His own father had hated any mention or use of magic in the house, had been practically terrified of it. Jacob however was thrilled, couldn’t understand why he should pair up the socks from the washing to put them away when Claire could use her wand and sort it in seconds.

When they arrived there was plates and mugs sailing from the kitchen counter, through bubbly, soapy hot water with a sponge that was washing everything, being dried by a floating tea towel, and then slipping back into place in the cupboards.

Jacob just turned to them with a wide eyed grin “that’s magic, that’s literally magic, bloody brilliant. Don’t know how we’d keep this place clean with a baby and without magic. You two okay? Thomas is having a nap upstairs”

Severus and Jade looked at each other with slight smiles and he snaked an arm around her as he looked down at the much shorter witch. “We actually had something we wanted to talk to you two about”

Claire looked interested and Jacob was practically bouncing with excitement so Jade glanced at him “You know don’t you?”

“Uh, well, I have an idea, if this is about what Sev spoke to me about the other week…?”

Jade rolled her eyes but wasn’t annoyed “okay, yes, yes, I’m - _we’re­_ \- pregnant”

Claire looked shocked and Jacob just grinned widely, clearly half expecting the second they had said there was something to announce.

Claire glanced between the three grinning faces in the room with her own shocked one “You’re _serious_? You’re _pregnant_?”

“Pretty sure, Sev got one of those muggle tests and it’s positive, the potions aren’t that accurate”

Claire pulled her friend into a tight hug and Jacob clapped Severus on the back with a grin before Claire hugged him and Jacob kissed Jade on the cheek with a smile.

“Well I think I’m a bit late to the party here as it seems everyone knows”

“No Claire, it’s only the four of us, I gather that Sev and Jacob spoke back when we weren’t sure yet. We don’t want anyone to know until I’ve had a scan or something to make sure that everything is okay. We can’t go to St Mungo’s for that, obviously”

Claire thought “Well, you can just go to the maternity ward of the local hospital, and just use a disillusionment charm and get them to do a scan maybe?”

Jacob looked a bit confused “you really can’t just go to St Mungo’s, are you that recognisable?”

Claire gave her husband an exasperated look “uh, yes Jacob, they’re two of the most famous faces in the wizarding world. Trust me, they’d be recognised”

“Ah, so you’re like actual celebrities then?”

Severus put his arm around Jade again “She is, not so much me”

Jade frowned “Only because I’m Harry’s Aunt”

“Jade’s got an Order of Merlin, that’s one of the highest awards the Wizarding World gives, and she’s fairly famously been tortured by a dark wizard who is very well known. She’s the youngest Auror ever, then the youngest senior Auror ever, twin brother and sister in law of the Potter’s – everyone knows about them, trust me, and daughter of two **_very_** famous wizards. There’s also the fact that there’s been stories about her in the papers once a week for about a decade now”

Jacob raised an eyebrow “Order of Merlin? That sounds _fancy_?”

“It isn’t that exciting, trust me” Jade elbowed Severus “Flattery will get you _everywhere_ ”

He smirked and gave her a quick kiss “Right, shall we head off then? I’d really like to see if everything is okay as soon as we can”

Claire and Jacob were grinning like maniacs and on the baby monitor there was the clear sounds of their son starting to stir and Jacob started to explain where the hospital was.

-

  
Jade knew nothing about muggle medicine, and wondered if she should have taken muggle studies at Hogwarts but Claire had told her what a scan was going to be like so she was at least prepared.

They’d gone to the muggle hospital not far from the cottage, glad they were both in muggle clothes as the robes would be a bit hard to explain away. Severus was good enough at non verbal magic that they had gone to the wing where the scans were done, muttered a few charms under his breath, announced they were there for a scan, and a lovely middle aged woman who worked there had nodded with mild confusion and taken them into a small room.

Jade was lying on the table, t-shirt rolled up as their sonographer dimmed the lights, put the cold gel on her stomach and was looking at the screen as she moved the wand over Jade’s flat stomach.

“Ah, here we go. Yes.... nice and healthy

Jade turned her head “is it just the one?”

The sonographer smiled gently “Were you expecting twins?”

“I’m a twin, my mother was a twin, and my dads dad was a twin as well”

The sonographer looked surprised but shook her head “wow. Well, no, there’s just the one in there. Though I’d say your chances of multiples in pregnancy is very high for subsequent pregnancies” beside her Severus made a strangled noise at the idea of more and the woman tapped a few keys on the keyboard and looked at them “and this-“ she tapped something

else and the room was filled with a loud, fast, rhythmic noise “-that’s your baby’s heartbeat”  
Jade and Severus looked at each other with barely contained amazement. Of all the things they had seen in the wizarding world, the magic, the creatures and the plants- this was more amazing by far.

“So you’re.... hmmm.... just over 9 weeks now. You said you’re both teachers?”

They nodded and she continued “you’re due the 19th of July, so you should be fine for most of the school year which is good”

Severus had cast a small memory charm on her before they left. It was only to clear the few minutes that they had been in there so it wouldn’t do any lasting damage, and she wondered off to make a cup of tea quite happily, immediately forgetting what she had been doing for the last fifteen minutes, but smiling at the couple kissing in the hallway. One was a slightly short brunette woman who long hair and freckles, and the man was much, much taller than her and quite thin, slightly longer dark hair pushed back, and a tattoo of a skull and snake on his forearm briefly visible as he pulled back from the kiss and told the woman “I love you so much”

-

They walked a safe distance, both feeling lighter than air before finding somewhere private and apparating back to the cottage.

Claire was practically bouncing with excitement and anticipation as Jacob muttered at his wife to calm down as baby Thomas squirmed in his arms and he put the baby down and let him attempt to crawl around on the floor.

“Well? I’ll gather from the big grins that…”

She didn’t want to finish the sentence just in case but Jade smiled wider than she had ever seen “Yes. The baby is fine, healthy and amazing”

Claire and Jacob let out identical little cheers and it was a few minutes before the four adults calmed down enough to sit down on the sofas in the living room.

“Can I ask a serious question? Where are you going to live? I mean, you both own places but with Harry around, well Jade you only have two rooms, and Sev I don’t think he will want to go to your place?”

Severus shook his head “I hate my place as well, I’m not raising my child in the place I hated growing up”

Jade twiddled her hair distractedly “I’ve actually been thinking about that. I think I know what I want to do”

Everyone looked at her as she continued “I wanted to move back to Potter House”

Even the muggle among them looked surprised, and it was clear that Severus was as surprised as Claire and Jacob.

“You want to move back to your old house?”

Jade nodded, clearly having thought this out “It’s the house where I grew up, it was lovely and it’s been in the family for generations. There are 8 bedrooms, three floors, a library, kitchen, dining room, a study, more than one living room, a potions research room… There’s enough bloody space”

Claire looked concerned “Yes, but, you and James never really went back there after your parents died, I thought it was too painful for you to go back?”

Severus was listening to the conversation as Thomas crawled towards him and picked up the baby who giggled in delight as he bounced on his legs.

Jade considered “Not too painful, but I didn’t want to be rattling around there by myself, and then I’d be left with the memories. I can’t bring myself to do anything with the room that James and… eventually Sirius… were in…. but there are 7 other bedrooms. There was only four of us growing up – before Sirius moved in- and it was still a ridiculously big house for us, I’m sure with the two of us, Harry and the baby we’ll have enough space. There are acres of land at the back of the house, and we can do it up and renovate it, make it our own, if you want to?”

Severus just responded by kissing her gently “Yes, lets do it, but speak to Harry first”

-

They returned to Hogwarts early afternoon and Jade and Severus walked up from the gates together, seeing a stream of students walking down out towards the gates, and Severus was glad he was dressed in black trousers and a very dark grey long sleeved shirt under a long black coat, so they weren’t startled to see him in his properly casual clothes like the jeans and faded Led Zeppelin top that Jade regularly stole.

She was wearing obviously muggle clothes but the students weren’t quite so startled by that.

As they passed the streams of students, Jade stopped Lucas Farris, Oliver Wood and Percy Weasley, who were walking in the sunshine and having a debate about the conditions needed to manage the wronski feint. Oliver was the only one really into Quidditch but the other Gryffindor and the Slytherin were far more analytical.

Jade was glad to see that her two best students Farris and Wealsey were getting on, despite the Slytherin’s fears that his biological father had killed either Gideon or Fabian, who had been Percy’s uncle.

Oliver Wood was in the same dormitory as Percy and clearly the three of them were getting on well, and looked happy enough when Jade stopped them as they all passed on the grassy slope.

“Lucas, where’s everyone going?”

“It’s the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year Professor, I think the third years are a bit over excited. McGonnaghal asked for all the Prefects to go and keep an eye out”

She’d forgotten that Percy was Head Boy and that Lucas was a Prefect and nodded, seeing all three boys glancing in mild interest at the stoically silent Severus in his Muggle looking clothing.

“Ah thanks, have a good day boys, has Harry already gone?”

Percy frowned “I heard him arguing with McGonnaghal this morning, I don’t think the Dursley’s signed and technically you aren’t his guardian so….”

Jade muttered something under her breath that Severus and the three teenagers didn’t quite hear but knew was going to be a swear word under her breath.

The three boys moved on and Jade turned to speak to Severus who motioned up to the castle “Go no, go sort it out, and I’ll see you later”

  * -



Most of the 3rd year and above students had already left for Hogsmeade, and McGonnaghal was stood on the front courtyard, a slightly wary expression flickering over her face as she saw Jade’s angry stomp over to her.

“Uh, Minerva, I heard you’ve not let my nephew go to Hogsmeade, care to explain?”

“I’m sorry Jade, but legally his guardians are still the Dursley’s, and not you”

“So you’re telling me that in your head, Sirius Black -escaped lunatic and murderer- can sign his Hogsmeade letter but not me, the Aunt who has him for 90% of the summer holidays?”

“You’ll have to speak to the Headmaster Jade, that’s what I have on his paperwork. There’s nothing I can do for this visit at least”

She was going to say more but Jade turned and stalked her way into the castle, which was very quiet and very empty in the corridors.  


She didn’t have to look far before she found Harry, standing in a quiet corridor with the Weasley twins, the invisibility cloak in one hand and looking at the large unfolded parchment in Fred’s hand, a moving map on it that she recognised immediately.

As they heard her approach the three boyd froze and Jade glanced between the parchment in Fred’s hand, Harry, George, Fred and then back to the parchment.

She took it off of Fred who visibly paled and she muttered _“mischief managed”_ and cleared the map, making the eyebrows of all three boys shot up in surprise.

“If there are teachers around, I’d advise you to keep it hidden, or at the very least to keep the parchment clear so no one will confiscate it”

George just gaped “you know about the map?”

Jade just shrugged “It’s a long story, but yes, and I’m not confiscating it. I know about the map, the tunnels, and secret entrances, and I know what the map does. Should I turn it in? Yes. Am I going to walk away instead, let you all have a day in Hogsmeade and have some cake and put my feet up instead? Yes”

Fred and George looked beyond relived and Jade did a mock salute to them “have fun boys. I saw nothing. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do”

It was a sentence that made her laugh to herself considering she was currently pregnant.  
  
-  
  
Jade was too tired to speak to Dumbledore that same day. There was no point now that she knew Harry had snuck out of the school with the help of the map and the cloak, and she knew full well just how proud Sirius and James would have been of that. She didn’t know where Remus was, but she was planning on finding her that weekend to tell him all about the stupid map and the fact it had resurfaced in Harry’s hands, which would make him smile at least.

Severus found Jade in her rooms about thirty minutes later, explaining that he had been tending to the wolfsbane potion, and sitting down next to her on the comfy sofa, pulling Jade’s legs over his own as she sprawled out, clearly comfy.

“Well I can’t stop thinking about that pounding little heartbeat, you are so god damn clever you know, making something so amazing”

Jade smiled contentedly “Well, it took two to tango as they say. You had quite a bit to do with it too. If I’m apparently severely unlikely to get pregnant you must have some seriously strong swimmers”

He laughed, rubbing her feet “Well, we have so much to talk about. The house, how we’re going to tell people… so much”

Jade snuggled back against the sofa cushion “I’d really rather have a nap right now to be honest. If I fall asleep can you wake me up when dinner starts?”

He nodded and she was asleep within about 90 seconds.

-

 

Hogsmeade had been nice and quite uneventful for Harry. It would be a few weeks before he’d hear about Sirius being his godfather, and the dementors would attack again, but for now he had just had a day out of the castle with his friends.

It was also a brief respite from people asking about how his aunt was getting off with Professor Snape.

There had been a rather close call where he had been walking with Ron and Hermione down the main street and they had seen Oliver Wood, Lucas Farris and Percy Weasley walking towards them. He knew the Head Boy and the other two had seen McGonnaghal forbidding him to leave the castle earlier, but Lucas had clocked the third year, and very obviously tried to distract Percy by looking in a shop window until Harry had passed.

Harry had snuck back up with all the other students under the invisibility cloak and had snuck around the corner to the courtyard Jade had shown him days before in order to take the cloak off without being seen.

He wasn’t hugely surprised to see his Aunt sat there waiting for him, apparently completely unsurprised and twirling her wand in her fingers.

“I gathered you’d come here, seeing as it is so unknown. Did you have a good day?”

He sat down beside her on the fountain “Yes, great thanks”  
  
“Harry, I need to talk to you about something-“

“If this is about the map-“

Jade waved a hand to stop his train of thought “no, it’s not cursed, you can do what you want with that. I mean, even without that you’ve been getting in enough trouble, and with the invisibility cloak there’s no point trying to keep you out of trouble. No it’s about my apartment, for what we’re going to do in the summer”

Harry eyed her curiously, expression unreadable “he’s moving in with you isn’t he?”

Jade shuffled her feet “not to my apartment, no. I wanted to talk to you about something else actually... the apartment isn’t really big enough for all of us” she didn’t think it was the right time to say _‘especially with a baby on the way’_ and carried on “and so I wanted to go somewhere bigger, so we all have space, and obviously neither you nor Severus really want to be around each other more than necessary, but I need to live me life too”

Harry scratched his chin “where were you thinking of moving?”

“Well, I still own the house James and I grew up in. It’s not been lived in since we were 17, but there’s a stasis charm on it so it’s in good shape. It isn’t far from where your parents lived with you actually. Your fathers room is the same as it was. I’ve not been back there for a long time because it hurt too much, but I need to make a family home now, you’re part of my family and I don’t want to consider doing this without seeing how you felt”

“Is it bigger?” Harry was thinking of the two bedrooms in Jade’s current apartment and the fact that he’d be forced to see Snape pretty much 24/7.

“Harry it’s got 8 bedrooms, you can have your own floor if you want”

There was a long silence “can I decorate my own room?”

Jade gave him a quick hug “of course you can Harry. The whole house needs redoing, you can help choose how we decorate the entire building”  
  
-    -  
  
In their first potions class of the week, Harry had argued with Draco, Draco had been an asshole back, and Snape had unsurprisingly blamed Harry and given him a detention with him.

Severus was thinking about that pounding heartbeat of the baby, the strong, healthy little baby that Jade was having. He was desperately hoping it was a boy, not because he didn’t want a girl, but he had absolutely no idea how to raise one, and knew he’d be worrying about her the entire time.

“Professor?”

He glanced up, vaguely realising that Harry had spoken twice before he’d realised.

“Yes?”

“Can I ask you something?”

He didn’t try and hide the eye roll or the “I’m sure you’ll ask even if I say no, so go ahead, though I should remind you you’re in detention”

“Jade said you and my dad didn’t get on at school, how come you and she were...together.... and you are now?”

He didn’t seem to understand the question “I don’t see what my thoughts on your father have to do with your aunt. They weren’t a package deal, they were very different people, even at your age, they had different patronus forms, not even a similar species, they were very different”

Harry thought for a second, clearly forgetting who he was talking to and that he was in detention with his least favourite teacher “what’s your patronus form professor?”

Severus closed his eyes for a second with a deep exhale “please, just do your work Potter”

Fifteen minutes later he heard another interruption.

“Professor Snape?”

He glanced up lazily, clearly annoyed at the intrusion into his marking time “What is it now Potter?”

“If you’re moving in with Jade, then we’ll all be living together this summer won’t we”  
It wasn’t a question and Severus said nothing, clearly waiting for Harry to make a point as the teenager considered his next thought “can you promise me you won’t break her heart?”  
Severus barely contained a snort of laughter “Christ, Potter, let’s not do this conversation and the threats if I hurt her, shall we. For one, you are barely a teenager and I’m still your teacher, secondly, I’m not going to break her heart”

His eyes flickered to the clock where it was showing about half an hour was left on the detention and Severus just shook his head “I think we’ll leave it there for today Potter, you can leave”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had lots of comments and likes and kudos recently and they all mean a lot so thanks so much!  
> You're all amazing x


	36. Chapter 36

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ron is the voice of reason, and Harry, then Remus, then maybe the rest of the school.... finds out about the baby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Snape will probably be off being sneaky or making potions or whatever he does when he isn’t banging your aunt'

Ron was writing on his own essay, desperately trying to be surreptitious as he tried to read Hermione’s upside down over the table in the library where they were sat on a table by themselves, voices low.

“Oh yeah? Potter house? It’s pretty well know Harry. It’s been empty for years, I guess since your dad and Jade moved out, but it’s one of those old wizarding houses that have been around for years. Dad said it’s got a bloody massive library or something”

Hermione pulled a face “I doubt your dad said ‘bloody massive’ Ronald”

“Actually, he did. Harry’s grandparents were inventors and created spells, potions, discovered cures and magical species. Their library is chock full of stuff I’d assume, it’s probably your dream Hermione. Anyway, the house is all protected and what not so no one can get in without prior consent, but it’s been in your family for so long I think it’s pretty massive, there’s a lot of family money right”

Harry had given up on the essay and put the quill down “Yes, but it’ll be us and  _him_  won’t it. Is any house big enough for that?”

Strangely the voice of reason came from Ron, who was practically leaning over the desk to look at Hermione’s work now “mate, you’re here most of the year, Christmas is two weeks, summer you’re at the Dursley’s like two weeks then the rest of its only six or eight weeks, and Snape will probably be off being sneaky or making potions or whatever he does when he isn’t banging your aunt. I thought you wanted a family and a family house, you gotta meet her halfway”

Harry wasn’t thrilled by the use of the term ‘ _banging your aunt_ ’ but got his point and Hermione was so impressed with Ron’s maturity she left her work an extra few seconds before rolling it up to stop him copying.

-

Jade never really knew what to make of Albus. His eyes were very sharp and she wondered sometimes about how easily he would find it to slip into someone’s mind and felt her mental barriers always up a little. There wasn’t much point though as he always seemed to know what was going on regardless.

Jade was sat in his office and felt like a naughty schoolchild, even though she had rarely been in trouble at all, let alone ending up the headmasters office, but it was something that she had never really grown out of – even though she was the one who had asked to see him.

“You’re here to talk about Harry’s authorisation for Hogsmeade I assume?”

“Yup”

“You know the Dursley’s are his guardians, they allow you to have him outside if the necessary time, and I know what you’re about to say so don’t bother- but the fact of the matter is that you are not Harry’s legal guardian”

“So the Dursley’s - mental Muggles who hate him- or Sirius Black- mental wizard on the run who caused the death of James and Lily, but happens to be his godfather. That’s Harry’s options is it?”

Albus steepled his fingers in front of his face “Jade, I will do what I can, but legally, this all still stands. I promise I will try though. I understand that our Mr Potter has probably made use of his father’s invisibility cloak to sneak out of the castle. The next Hogsmeade visit isn’t for a number of weeks, I will speak to you about this before then I promise”

She wasn’t thrilled but Albus had given his word and that would have to do for now. She was intending to leave but Albus kept talking.

“I heard you’re going to move into Potter House?”

Jade glanced up with a slight frown “where did you hear that?”

“Severus”

“Ah. Yes, I wanted to get a start on it soon so at done before the summer. There’s a lot of work to do. I like it but I want to make it our own”

Albus has a thoughtful look in his eyes “and you’ll want to be done before the baby arrives”

Their eyes met and she was clearly a little surprised “did Severus tell you?”

Albus shook his head “no, but it wasn’t too hard to work out”

Jade opened her mouth and closed it again before shrugging with a little smile “It’s still early days but, well, we are really happy”

“Congratulations, to you both. All I’ve ever wanted was for you and Severus to be happy, and all he has ever wanted is you, and to be a father in a family with you. I think it is a wonderful thing. If you are all living together then Harry and Severus will have to form a bond, which I think would be good for everyone”

Jade smiled, touching her stomach “Thank you Albus. I understand your worries about what might happen in the future, if You Know Who returns and with Severus”

“Jade, I have always been honest with you, in my belief that _He_ will return one day. I have always told you that, and I believe that the unbreakable vow you took not long before your brother died, well I believe that has something to do with how he will do it. I can’t say for sure but I know that there will come a time when Severus may be forced to play both sides again. I believe however that Severus will do anything to keep his family safe”

-//-

Jade wasn’t able to take Harry off the grounds whilst school was in session but she had managed to get a hold of the floorplan blueprints for Potter House as it currently stood, and he was in her living room after quidditch practice, sipping pumpkin juice as she pointed out the various floors with the changes she wanted to make.

“So the kitchen, living room and dining room will all be one large room, this will be your bedroom, it’s two bedrooms knocked together, and you’ll have your own attached bathroom and your own floor”

Jade felt her stomach clench before she motioned to the top floor “So this is where we will sleep, the room is here, here is the bathroom” there was a pause and she actually closed her eyes before she pointed at a room adjoining where Jade and Severus were going to be. There was a giant bedroom, walk in wardrobe, bathroom, and only one other separate room that was also fairly large on that floor, which is what she was pointing at “and this is where the baby is going to sleep”

Harry looked up, eyes baffled behind his glasses “What baby?”

She swallowed “my baby. Your cousin”

His eyes flickered to where her hand was resting on her flat stomach “you mean...................…………..........”

There was a stunned silence and she managed to nod “Yes Harry. When you’re here in the summer there will be a baby too”

Harry just stared at her for a few seconds “you’re not serious?”

“No, I am”

“But, ugh, Jade! Everyone moans to us about safe sex-“

“Uh, because you’re a teenager, I’m in my thirties it’s a bit different”

Harry waved a hand dismissively as if that wasn’t really a perfectly valid point.

“But a **_baby_**? My **god**. With professor Snape?”

“Yes of course it’s his Harry, there isn’t anyone else thank you very much”

“But... a cousin”

Jade nodded, glad he was no longer half accusing he of getting pregnant with a random person “Yes. We’ll all live here, we’ll be a family and you’re part of my family Harry”

She looked closely at the teenager as he glanced from her, back to the empty room, down to her stomach and back to the room with a rather dramatic sigh.

“I know but _you’re pregnant?_ This is just mental, you can’t really get rid of Snape now can you”

“I wasn’t planning on it Harry”

He managed a smirk “I know, but… well congratulations I guess”

He hugged her, obviously happy but wishing that she’d got pregnant by literally any other human being in the world.

=//=

In the potions room, Remus glanced at the potion with a wary expression “and you’ve not snuck any poison in there?”

Severus was just trying to get on with marking and glanced up “As much as I’d love to, and trust me I would, I’d be a lot more subtle about it”

Remus half laughed and sniffed it “also Jade would probably kill you for it”

Severus raised his eyebrows with a nod that Remus knew was a ‘ _you’re not wrong about that’_ gesture and glanced at the parchment in front of him.

“Your next course will start on the...8th, just to be certain”

“I really appreciate this Severus, I want you to know that”

His eyes narrowed ever so slightly “I’m only doing this because Albus gave me no option and Jade didn’t leave me much option either. She’s a good friend, you know how much she’s done for you”

Remus nodded thoughtfully, assuming Severus understood that Jade had become an animagus to help him through his transformations, and that that was why she hadn’t revealed the reasons at her trial even though it might have helped her case considerably but the small circle of people who knew about his condition would have widened considerably. Obviously the potions professor didn’t know about Peter, James and Sirius but if Jade was keeping it quiet he wasn’t about to tell anyone else.

“Yes. She’s a good friend”

Severus put down the quill he had t really been using and steepled his fingers in front of his face “when she realised I could brew the wolfsbane she didn’t realise it was regulated by the ministry, and we had quite the argument as she thought I’d been able to do it all this time but had t wanted to. She said she’d have sold Potter House to fund the ingredients if needed”

Remus looked thrown at that “really?”

“Yes. Despite how much it means to her she’d have given it up to help you out. Black being out of Azkaban has affected her more than she would admit, so please, just... I don’t know what you two do, but she could do with a friend”

\--//--

Harry had agreed to tell no one about the pregnancy apart from Hermione and Ron (who he knew would inevitably find out either way).

She was sat in her living room, the door open as she pottered around sorting some books on the tall shelf, wearing black denim shorts and a slightly baggy Ireland quidditch hoodie and barefoot, her curly hair in a messy high ponytail. It was a weekend so she hadn’t really expected a knock on the door when it came.

Jade glanced up with slight surprise, seeing Remus stood in the doorway “Moony, everything okay?”

“Yes, actually, just had the first dose of wolfsbane from your boyfriend, he’s not poisoned me yet. I just wanted to spend some time with you, unless you’re busy?”

“I’ve always got time for you, come on then, close the door or I’ll be forced into answering essay questions”

He laughed and closed her door, and they both sat down across each other on sofas.

“So,  I actually wanted to talk to you about something, I haven’t told you something, and I don’t really know why I kept it a secret”

“Right....”

She twirled a curl in her hair distractedly “do you remember I told you last year I went to see McLeish in Azkaban?”

“The one who killed the Prewett’s?”

“Yes, and who nearly killed me in Harry’s first year. Well when I knew he was locked up I had to see for myself, I’ve been after him since, well a decade now. Going after him is pretty much what kept me going after they took Harry, and James died. Also I know how bloody awful hat prison is so I wanted to see him suffering, a bit morbid I know but still. When I was there they told me a prisoner wanted to see me”

Remus’ hand twitched slightly “Jade-“

“Yeah I know it was a bad idea I don’t need your lecture as well. I changed what his allowances are. Still no letters either in or out but he gets a paper every day”

“Who knows about this?”

She shrugged “it’s perfectly legal. Rufus Scrimgeour basically called me an idiot but it’s up to me”

“And does Sirius know it was you who changed it?”

“It’s on the paperwork as Auror JGC which isn’t exactly common initials, and there’s only a handful of senior aurors with enough clearance to make that change, so I don’t think it’s hard for him to work out”

“And... what did he say?”

“Asked if you were alive, then just the same old crap about Wormtail being behind it all”

Remus has an expression that she found completely unreadable as he stared into his tea cup and Jade made sure her voice was gentle “are you okay?”

“Yes I just don’t understand why you would indulge him. Sirius is a good manipulator, you know that as well as I do. He lied to us all”

“Yes, but this is the same person who lived in the room next to me at my house for years, the one who my dad taught all about runes, the one who held my hand at my parents funeral, the one who broke James’ promise to come to me and ask for my help with the animagus process. Sirius was a second brother to me, I can’t explain it to Severus but to me it’s almost like we’re talking about two separate people. I had to see what he wanted to say”

“And was it worth it?”

“No”

Remus sighed, running a hand through his hair “Jade, I mean….”

“You don’t get to have a go at me Moony, you can’t be mean to a pregnant woman”

The noise that he made was one of a strangled gasp as his breath caught “Fuck off!”

“I’m serious Remus, we went to a muggle Doctor to check it out. Only the one baby though, we were a bit worried it might be twins given the family history but-”

He stood up, crossed the space between them and pulled her into a bone crushing hug. When he pulled back Jade didn’t miss the tears in his eyes as he placed his hands on her stomach.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe this! I’ll have to do the whole stern talk with Severus won’t I?”

She just laughed “Harry’s already done it, I think it was horribly awkward for us both. Oh we have a picture if you wanted to see-”

Remus made a little squeal as Jade got the sonogram out of a drawer and showed it to him “Merlin’s beard, baby Snape. How are you going to raise a kid in your apartment though?”

“Well, you know how Potter House is still in my name…”

\--//--

 

The teachers were largely all in the teachers lounge after dinner, and Jade was waiting for Severus to come before they told the others about the pregnancy. It was very late, after curfew hours, and a few of them were getting a bit drunk by this point.

Jade was twisting her wand through her fingers in a way that she had certainly learned off James.

Jade glanced at Remus with a wary expression “Something isn’t right”

“What do you mean?”

“I can feel it- something isn’t right”

Remus half rolled his eyes “your spidey senses tingling?”

“Huh?”

“Spider-Man, Jade?”

“What are you on about?”

“The comics, the kid who is bit by the spider and can shoot webbing- never mind”

“I don’t understand anything you’ve just said to me”

She stood, the tingling on her spine getting more intense and she was determined to go and find Albus and Severus when she opened the door to the lounge and saw McGonnaghal, Severus and Albus standing there, looking white as a sheet.

“Sirius Black was in the building, he tried to enter Gryffindor tower but was stopped by the Fat Lady. The students are coming to the Hall to be counted”

Jade glanced at an impossibly white looking Remus and everyone grabbed their wands and sped down to the Great Hall, where hundreds of scared looking teenagers were gathered, lots of them in pyjamas and dressing gowns, a few huddled in their duvets and half asleep.

Jade shouted loudly “Everyone stand in a line within your year group, behind your House Prefects, with your Houses, you will be counted immediately”

She glanced back around, seeing Harry in the crowd, clearly half asleep and feeling relieved. She was glad to see the Weasley twins trying to comfort some scared first years, and saw Lucas Farris and Percy Weasley moving to sort their Houses out, the other prefects following.

The students had all gone quiet and were listening to the teachers as Jade loudly called to Severus “Is he still in the castle?”

“We don’t know”

Jade turned to Mcgonnaghal and loudly asked “is animagus transformation dangerous in pregnancy?”

The deputy headmistress looked baffled but shook her head “no, apart from the last few weeks”

Jade just nodded, darkly muttering “I’ll find him” before transforming seamlessly into the black jaguar form and tearing out of the Hall.

There was a silence amongst the students until one quietly said “does that mean she’s...?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You are all amazing.  
> Loving the comments and kudos.  
> I guess we've got to have the Ministry friends finding out about the pregnancy, and we take a little walk up to Potter House next time.!


	37. Chapter 37

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rufus Scrimgeour, Kingsley and Alastor Moody find out about the baby.  
> Accidentally finding out if it is a boy or a girl!!!!!!!!  
> Severus gets his first look around Potter House

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do I even need to say I don't own anything to do with Harry Potter? Would I be worrying about my mortgage if I was JK Rowling in disguise? - Nope

The teachers had made themselves busy, and Severus had gone off with McGonnaghal on a sweep of the inside of the castle in a desperate attempt to get away from Harry’s slightly disapproving look, and the way that the entire student body was trying to stare at him.

As they swept along the charms classroom, both holding their wands, Severus glanced at his former Transfiguration teacher and simply muttered “She is pregnant, and I’m terrified she’s out there and Black might be, and no, I really, really don’t want to talk about it”

In fairness to her, Minerva just nodded, pushing the multitude of questions to the back of her head as they searched every hidden corridor, behind each tapestry, and each room in the corridor.

When they found it was clear, they did the same with the other two adjoining ones, moving incredibly quickly, before heading back down to the Great Hall, where everyone was talking loudly, but was in the rows of each year group and each House, standing in lines behind their Prefects but if Harry’s sour expression was anything to go by, the conversation was almost entirely about the fact their Potions Professor appeared to have got their Herbology teacher pregnant.

As the Gryffindor head of house and the Slytherin one slipped back in to the Hall, Albus glanced up “Anything?”

“No, it was clear, anyone else find anything?”

Albus shook his head, having gone with Flitwick on the other corridors “No, nothing, he’s gone”

Severus was holding his wand so tightly that his knuckles were white “Yes, but Jade is there-”

As he spoke, the black jaguar padded back through the Hall doors, before transforming back into an exhausted looking Jade.

Everyone in the Hall went silent as Jade shook her head, voice carrying in the silence despite being quiet “Nothing. He’s gone. Send the students back to their dormitories, as long as everyone is accounted for?”

She glanced at Percy who nodded, confirming no students were missing as she ran a hand through her hair. “Okay, okay. I need some chocolate”

Albus and McGonnaghal moved to start ordering the students back to their dormitories, giving guidance to the Prefects as Jade looked up at Severus with an unusually passive expression, voice barely above a whisper “Can we go to the kitchens? I’m starving”

Remus stepped in, a hand on his friends back gently “you two go, I’ll take the Hufflepuff students and Albus will take the Slytherin’s down to the dungeons”

Severus managed a half hearted “thanks” at the man he hated, a hand on Jade’s back as he guided her out the hall and they walked beside each other up towards the kitchens.

 

Jade had eaten two cheese sandwiches and a rather large slice of chocolate cake that Severus had sat beside her on one of the small tables in the kitchen and shared.

The students had all been banned from sending any mail for the night or the following day, and Albus had said it was just so they could figure out exactly what happened before things went back to normal, but she rather gratefully realised that it was to stop the pregnancy news coming out before Jade and Severus had had a chance to tell their friends.

Neither of them had any family left – other than Harry- so it was just their extended friends, and Jade had wanted to tell some of the Ministry before it came out, as it would seem like she had tried to blindside them.

In the morning at breakfast Albus decided he had to say something, and both Jade and Severus had decided that they had to face it head on.

“Can I have everyone’s attention please. You may have seen that Professor Snape and Professor Greenlake aren’t here today, they will be away for the rest of the weekend, including Monday. There will be no classes on Monday whilst we try and sort out what happened last night. If there is anything that is needed with help with essays etcetera, then please ask another teacher and they will be happy to help, same with any House related issues. Also, as I think most of you heard last night, but they have agreed that we can confirm- Professor Greenlake will be having a baby at the end of the school year, she will continue teaching until the summer holidays begin. As you can hopefully appreciate, neither she nor Professor Snape want any further intrusion into their personal lives than necessary, and I would advise against all of you from asking to many questions. Now, I urge everyone to spend the day being as productive as possible, I know it is a Sunday and classes are cancelled tomorrow, but your Professor’s will expect you to have kept up. Post will resume as usual tomorrow”

Albus sat down and as one, every head in the Hall turned to look at Harry, who was silently looking at his eggs like they held the answers to the universe, not wanting to meet anyone’s eyes.

Jade knew she only had the day to tell people before a student inevitably sent a letter to their parents who told the Prophet, or went straight to the paper themselves and then everyone knew. She’d never manage to get to everyone on a Sunday, but there were a few people that she **_had_** to tell in person, namely those who were technically her bosses – Kinglsey, Rufus Scrimgeour, and the one she was most scared of – Alastor.

 

Sat in the Ministry on a Sunday wasn’t really where she wanted to be, but Jade knew that Kingsley and Rufus would both be in, after the news about Sirius’s attempt to get in to Gryffindor tower, regardless of whether it was the weekend or not.

It was still early in the morning, Jade was swirling her finger along the wooden pattern on the desk as Rufus Scrimgeour eventually came in, clearly just from a meeting if the stack of papers in his hands that he shoved on a desk by the window were anything to do with it.

He sat down heavily behind the desk, looking at her over the table and smiled “They said you were here and I was a bit surprised to be honest. What can I do for you then? This isn’t about Sirius Black or you’d have gone to the team”

“I, well, I need to talk to you about something personal. Obviously I still have my licence and want to keep that for the foreseeable future, but I’m also staying at Hogwarts for as long as I can as well”

“Yes I know, we’ve had this discussion-“

“-I’m pregnant”

She’d wanted to tell him better than the fast jumble of words that had come out but he was obviously shocked for a few seconds before smiling widely “Well, congratulations! Why do you look so nervous about telling me that?”

“Because you’re going to ask me to leave the department”

Scrimgeour looked genuinely baffled “why would I ask you to leave because you’re pregnant? You’re not on active patrols anyway whilst you’re teaching”

“Yes but when I have the baby...”

“Right, when you have the baby you can come back if you want. It’s up to you not me. Jade you’re one of our best and youngest- if you want to come back once you’ve had the baby and Harry’s out of Hogwarts then trust me, none of us are stupid enough to try and stop you”

-//-

In his office, Kingsley was eating a chicken and rice burrito at his desk with a look of pure bliss when Jade knocked on the door “Kings, have you got a minute?”

He was obviously surprised to see her and glanced up “J? Yeah always have time for you, this is the first meal I’ve managed to grab for hours though so-“

“No, you go to town on that, I just needed to see you. Why are you eating a burrito at 9.35 in the morning?”

“I’ve been working through the night, this is dinner, I guess, I don’t know I just had it”

She closed the door behind her and sat on the black leather sofa he had to one side that she had slept on a multitude of times “so, I’ve got some news. The whole school knows about me and Severus”

Kingsley swallowed a large mouthful “oooh, tell me everything?”

“Well the dementors were spooked by something in the forest and I transformed and went down into the forest-“

“-running headfirst into danger, there’s no shock there”

She pulled a face and continued “and when I came back I was covered in mud and blood, it wasn’t my blood but Sev just panicked and kissed me. Don’t think it occurred to him the entire student body was standing behind him though”

“Well that’s adorable. Xavier will love that”

“Talking of your lovely husband, I’m going to have to ask him for some more tailored clothes soon”

Kingsley smirked “ooooh wedding dress is it?”

“No, I need clothes with space for the bump”

She touched her stomach as she spoke and Kingsley clearly got the point as he nearly choked on his burrito. After spluttering for a few seconds he finally managed to speak “seriously?”

“Yes. _Knocked up_ as the muggles say”

“You’re seriously pregnant?”

He didn’t know how Jade was taking it so tried to hide his excitement until she grinned “yes Kings, very much pregnant. We saw a muggle doctor to confirm it in case we were recog-“

She never finished the sentence as Kingsley laughed over and pulled her to her feet and into a tight hug “oh my god. I think I’m going to cry!”

He pulled back and Jade was wide eyed with amusement “please don’t cry you’ll set me off. Oh and yes, he whole school knows about it, hence why I’m doing the rounds before it ends up in the prophet”

“Oh my goodness, I need **_all_** the details, but you’ve got to make sure you see Alastor before it comes out, he’ll be crushed otherwise”

\--//--

 

Alastor was repotting some plants when Jade arrived, the familiar garden really warming her heart.  
There was still this tenuous awkwardness between them due to his obsession that she would tell everyone his secret, which she really didn’t have any intention of sharing, but over the last year they had definitely grown closer again.

Before she was close enough to be heard, Alastor glanced up, spying her over the long garden and standing up fully, leaning against the shovel with a curious expression.

Jade picked her way around the flowerbed and planters, both of Moody’s eyes fixed on her as she got closer.

He didn’t ask why she was there, just simply said “Tea?”

“Oh I’d bloody love one thanks”

He said nothing, picking up his staff and walking to the shade of a large tree where there was a small wooden table with two chairs, and he settled into one and waved his wand to make a pot of tea and two teacups appear on the table as she sat in the other one, and he spoke thoughtfully.

Alastor glanced over his mug, fixing her with both eyes “y’ see, I know what you’ve come here to tell me, and I know you’re worried I won’t approve or something, but it’s no ones business but yours, so who cares about anyone’s opinion. Secondly, all I want is to see you happy, and you’re going t’ be great at being a mum, so, well, don’t worry about it”

Their eyes were locked for a few seconds “how can you tell?”

“I didn’t read your mind don’t worry. The wards alerted me to two ‘life forms’ and well, it’s only you, and also, you know, the eye”

Jade glanced at her stomach “you can **_see_** it?”

Alastor shrugged “sort of. I’m aware there’s a baby there, can’t see it though”

“Well, it’s really quite impressive bit of tech you got there”

He shrugged “your dad made it”

Jade flattered “Huh? He was dead before you lost your eye?”

“Yes. But he created it jus’ before his death, it was left with Albus I gather. One of the last things he did I reckon, seems quite fitting that you ended up working with us a few years later eh?”

Jade was amazed but not surprised, seeing as her father was still known as one of the best inventors in the magical world for hundreds of years. Alastor frowned “did you think I’d be annoyed?”

“Huh?”

“About the baby, you looked nervous when you arrived”

“Well, it’s with a former death eater isn’t it?”

Alastor took a long sip of his tea before putting the cup down “Look, was Snape a Death Eater at one point? Yes? Do I believe he changed sides and helped us? Absolutely. I’ll assume he’s the one who gave you the information on the Attack on the Ministry, Albus believes him, and you do. You’re a good judge of character. You’re insufferable, difficult, you run into danger blindly, and you really have **no** sense of self preservation, but you’re a good judge of character. You’ve been in love with that man for years, and he looks at you like you’re the greatest thing in the universe. You were always going to end up back together, and it’s not inconceivable that you would end up with a family. Frankly I think it’s going to be a good thing for you”

Jade blinked “you aren’t going to go off on one? You’re not going to call me an idiot?”

“Nope”

“Alastor I......... I’d braced myself for you to be so angry that I don’t........”

He shrugged, sipping the tea again and settling back in the chair “you’re fine Jade, just relax. I assume you’re staying at the school to keep teaching- I guess your son will have the run of the castle won’t he?”

Jade coughed on her tea “son?”

“Oh. Did you not want to know? Sorry”

“I don’t understand”

“My eye, there’s a female atmosphere around you- obviously- and there’s a tiny little male one around you as well, so yeah, it’s a boy, sorry”  
Jade just blinked before quite literally bursting into tears. Alastor looked distinctly uncomfortable

“did you not want a boy?”

“No I did I just- hormones maybe? God why can’t I stop crying?”  
Going against him very nature, Alastor touched her arm gently, though it was very awkward “um, it’s okay”

His awkwardness just made her laugh and the tension left them both.

\--//--

 

Severus met her in Godrick’s Hollow, thankful that she seemed in a good enough mood, which meant that telling Kingsley, Rufus Scrimgeour and Alastor had gone well enough. Jade didn’t see why having a baby would mean she couldn’t work as an Auror, but she was the only current senior auror who was female, as the rest were all much older and male, and previous women who had got to the position either had older children who were already at school so it didn’t really matter, or hadn’t had children.

There wasn’t really an precedent for someone to get to Senior Auror in their 20’s as Jade had, let alone with a baby, but judging by her smile as she walked down the quiet street towards him with a big smile, it was clear her position at the Ministry was intact.

It was around lunch time and the town was fairly quiet as they met where they had arranged. Jade reached onto her tiptoes and kissed him deeply.

“I’ll assume it went well today then?”

“Very. Rufus said my position and licence is fine even after the baby comes, Kingsley was close to tears, and Alastor actually said some quite nice things about you, and he wasn’t exactly surprised. I’m glad we’re not facing the students today but you know what, I’m in a seriously good mood”

Severus wrapped his arms around her middle and kissed Jade’s forehead “Good, I think Scrimgeour would be too scared to deny you what you asked for anyway”

She smirked “You’re probably right, shall we head up to the house then?”

He slipped his hand into hers as they headed through the town.

The town thinned out as they made their way up the stone path, heading uphill gently. There was one last house on the right, and on the left there was a large field. In front of him, Severus could see the wards shimmering along a perimeter, a wall of shimmering air obscuring the house the lay beyond it.

Jade waved a hand and muttered a series of spells, and Potter House came in to focus.

Severus followed Jade slowly, letting her lead the way as she dropped the wards as they entered, and she put them up again on the perimeter of the grounds, but it meant they wouldn’t set any alarms off.

There was a low white picket fence around the perimeter of the property, and lush green grass with a wide paved path leading up to the front of the building.

It was a large brown-red brick building. The entrance had a large black door in the centre of the building, and several large windows showing him with a quick look that there was an awful lot of rooms, there was six large windows on each side of the door on each side of the building, and there was the ground floor and two further floors. There was a small balcony on two of the windows on the middle floor, three sets of chimneys, and as they walked closer he got a better view of the entrance.

There was a small arched entrance and as they got to the door, he could see the Potter crest etched into the stone above the door, along with some runes.

Severus had never seen the house properly before but knew that they’d grown up wealthy so it wasn’t exactly a surprise, he was more surprised by the fact she’d been sat on this sort of equity and done nothing with it. Obviously Jade didn’t exactly need the money, and he knew that she’d never wanted to be rattling around the building by herself - too many memories and no need for so many rooms- but this place must have been worth more than most of the vaults in Gringott’s combined.

He glanced at the runes etched all over the entrance archway and frowned “what do these mean? I was no good at runes”

Jade glanced up at them with a fond look “protection, luck, happiness, the usual. Some great, great, great relative was into them. I didn’t take runes, neither did James, but dad was fascinated by them, wrote a few books actually”

Severus nodded, running a hand along the symbols “I didn’t take it at Hogwarts either”

“Dad was a bit let down me and James didn’t care, think he was grateful Sirius was so interested...”

She trailed off and he was about to move on but Jade looked a bit distant and carried on “you’ve seen the etchings on his wand? My dad helped him put the runes on his wand when we were about fifteen, he was an old friend of Olivander and helped them do it.... anyway, shall we go in?”  
  


He was impressed with the strength of the stasis charms on the building, as there wasn’t really much sign that the house had been empty for as long as it had. It looked like maybe a short time without occupants, rather than since Jade was around 17. The entrance hallway was black and white tiled and cavernous, high beamed ceilings, with wide stairs to the left, and a large closed door down and to the right, before the corridor curved around. There was two brooms stood leaning against a door under the stairs where he assumed was a small storage area.

There were no coats on the hooks and no shoes in the entrance so it looked to Severus like it had at least somewhat been cleared out by Jade, Sirius and James. She glanced over her shoulder at Severus and beckoned him through the first closed door “You’ll enjoy this”

He followed her through, seeing it was the library.

The library was extensive, and Severus blinked in surprise as Jade glanced around sheepishly “the back wall, that’s all books, diaries and logs from either my parents, my uncle or dad’s father. The rest is just things that have stayed in the family... I’d need your help to organise all of it...”

“This is…amazing…this will take weeks and weeks to go through though”

Jade shrugged “We’ve got all the time in the world, come on, I’ll show you around, see what we want to change”

  
-//-

They glanced through the large kitchen, living room, dining rooms, conservatory, and the several bedrooms and bathrooms on the middle floor, and they discussed where the walls would be moved for Harry’s room. Severus glanced in Jade’s old bedroom with a slight smirk, and decided not to take a look in the room James and Sirius had shared.

Eventually they made it up to the top floor, going up anther carpeted set of wide stairs and she glanced at a curious Severus “This was my parents old room”

Jade pushed the door open.

The room was empty and he glanced at her in confusion and Jade shrugged “mum and dad died before we finished school, me, Sirius and James stayed here in the last year and then all found our own places, this was my parents room when I was growing up but they were in St Mungo’s for a long time before they died, so we cleared this room out and I don’t really know what anyone thought we’d do with it but, well, we can have it now”

He walked slowly around the room and to the enormous windows, which looked out over the gardens. He then headed to the en suite bathroom, which had a large bath, separate shower and a large window again with views over the side of the house.

Jade was standing looking a little bit worried in the bedroom.

“Do you think I’m spoiled?”

“What?”

“Living here as a child? I’m not blind, I know it’s massive”

He shook his head and answered honestly “I think you were rich, that’s not really the same thing”

She moved to stand beside him, looking out over the large grounds as he wound his arm around her middle, seeming content “it really is a wonderful house”

“It’s one of the oldest houses in Godrick’s Hollow, I’m just glad we’ve got somewhere to raise our family”

Jade tugged at Severus’ hand and led him out the room, on the same floor to where there was another empty but fairly sizeable bedroom and she motioned to it, lots of windows in the room flooding it with natural light.

“So this is where the baby will sleep, once we move the cot out of our bedroom”

Jade turned, seeing the gentle smile on Severus’ face, clearly imagining what the room would look like before Jade put her arms up, hands linked behind his neck as he looked down at her with nothing short of adoration.

“So, I thought we could start the changes with this room, paint the walls blue maybe?”

Severus kissed her hair as his hands settled on her hips “Hmm, maybe we should wait until we know if it-”

“No, honey, Alastor could tell, it’s a boy, we’re having a son”

Severus had so many emotions firing at once that he didn’t know what to say but just craned his neck down to give Jade a searing, blistering kiss.

“My god, I love you so, so much”

“I love you too”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was the worlds longest chapter and I've decided to end it here and then carry on separately, splitting it in to two. I'm on a lot of sleeping tabs for insomnia and don't have the energy to finish a giant chapter tonight!  
> Coming soon- the Prophet finds out
> 
> You're all amazing thanks for reading


	38. Chapter 38

They apparated back to Severus’ house and they had barely touched the ground when Jade felt a curling in her stomach, cheeks flushing with heat.

Jade wasn’t sure if it was the hormones or what, but she felt an overwhelming swell of emotions and a truly desperate need to  ** _have_**  him right now, and she didn’t care how needy she looked.

Severus was a man however, and wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity.

She kissed him, hard. It only took about half a second for him to kiss back, their bodies winding closer together.

“Jade I-“

“Please stop talking”

“Yes m’am”

They were kissing furiously and their lips were locked together and she felt him gently stepping her backwards so that the back of her knees were against the seat of the sofa.

Without breaking the kisses, Jade laid down on the sofa and Severus’ much taller body was over hers as she quickly unbuckled his belt as he slid a hand up her leg, pushing the dress up, grateful she hadn’t worn tights, breaking the kiss long enough to notice that she was wearing pale blue lace knickers that made him groan a little before leaning over for another blistering kiss, long fingers slipping under the fabric.

It didn’t take long, and he could hear every shaky intake of breath Jade let out against his lips.

Jade came so hard that when she came around she realised she’d been digging her nails into his shoulder.

“Oh god, sorry”

He just laughed, kissing her and unbuttoning his trousers “it’s fine. There are worse injuries to have”

Jade sat up slightly to kick off her ankle boots and pulled the dress over her head, and he pulled off his own top and jeans very swiftly.

Severus glanced down appreciatively “not wearing a bra? God you never cease to amaze”

Jade smirked “I’ve got pretty much nothing to put in a bra Sev”

Judging by what was poking against her hip, Jade didn’t think he seemed too bothered, and the kissed again as he moved over her, moved her leg slightly and slid in.

There was no noise apart from the shuffling of movement and their heavy breathing and intermittent groans and grunts. Every now and again one of them let out a breathy swear or a ‘Jesus Christ’ between the hard kisses Severus pressing against her lips, jaw, collarbone and breasts until Jade came again, back arching as she clenched around him and that was what tipped him over the edge with a low grunt.

He stilled against her for a second, their sweaty, panting bodies against each other before he rolled off to the side, both of them lying on the sofa.

After a few seconds Jade turned to Severus, who had an arm thrown over his face and catching his breath.

“Sorry, I sort of jumped you a bit”

He dropped the arm from his face and glanced at her with a smile “feel free to do it as many times as you want”

He half rolled to give her a quick kiss and carried on “if that’s what the hormones do to you then we’re going to have 30 children. You want some water?”

She just nodded and he pulled his boxers back on as he walked into his kitchen.

 

Jade had re-dressed by the time he came back in, trying to sort her hair out as he handed her the water.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m pregnant Sev, I’m not made of glass. Trust me, I’m fine”

He looked relieved as he pulled his jeans back on.

“I don’t want to be overbearing, trust me J, I know you can more than look after yourself”

She shook her head “No, you’re fine. This is new territory for both of us, okay. It’s your baby not just mine, and neither of us have ever done this before. Unless you’ve got a secret family I don’t know about?”

He smirked, hands on either side of her face and leaning down for a quick kiss “It’s only you, always, always only you”

 

Severus had cooked an early dinner/late lunch. Well, Jade had sort of looked over his shoulder and directed what to do with the Bolognese, but he was still rather adamant that it was _him_ that had made it, and she was too tired to disagree.

Afterwards, Jade put her fork down and looked up at him “I’m going to go back to the school today”

“Uh, why? There aren’t any lessons on Monday”

“I know, but I want to see Harry, and I’ve got a lot to sort out. The kids can send letters from about now onwards, which means the Prophet will have the article about the pregnancy in the morning, I’m sure they’ll rush that in. I wouldn’t mind talking to Remus as well, and I need to do a ton of marking I’ve put off”

He nodded “Well, I’m not coming back, I’ve got a day off and I fully intend to use it. I sent an owl to Jacob and he’s got Monday off work as well so we might go out for a drink, I think Claire’s given him a pass to go out”

She leant over and squeezed his hand “That’s fine, enjoy yourself, I just want some of that chocolate from the kitchens, been dreaming about it all day”

 

She’d taken the floo back to Hogwarts and it was early afternoon, a little before dinner and she was sat in her office, attempting to mark some truly rubbish first year essays when she heard a knock on the open door.

Jade glanced up at the knocks and saw Percy Weasley and Lucas Farris there, looking a bit confused.

“Is everything okay Professor? Weston said you wanted to see us?”

“Oh yeah everything is fine, Sorry I know it’s a Sunday I just had the owls back when I came back to the castle. It is just to let you both know that I’ve managed to sort your work experiences out at the Ministry”

They both beamed and she waved a hand dismissively “don’t thank me too quickly. Crouch was relatively happy to help with yours Percy and Lucas obviously what with ministry restrictions and privacy issues, you’ll be only be able to access a really small amount of information and it will be boring as hell, but it’s something. You’ll both have your birthdays before the Easter term break so at least you’ll be able to use your wands whilst you’re in the ministry, or it’ll be unbelievably boring. The contacts at the ministry will get int ouch with you directly for this okay”

“Oh my gosh thanks!”

“Thank you so much”

Jade waved a hand again “honestly, it was only a few owls it wasn’t that difficult, just don’t embarrass me when you’re there alright. Now surely you’ve got work to be getting on with, on you go”

As they left Lucas turned back “oh, and Professor- congratulations”

She smiled “thanks, now get along now, I assume this will be all over the newspaper in the mornings!”

 

Monday was subdued as there were no lessons and Jade was wearing grey skinny jeans and a white jumper, her curly hair in a messy bun and tied around with a black ribbon.

It took a while for most of the students to clock who it was as they weren’t expecting to see her until that afternoon, and the fact that in her own clothes she looked at a pass not completely out of place amongst them.

Halfway down the Hall she had a quick word with two Hufflepuff’s who were arguing with each other about something, before she hopped up to the Teachers table and sat beside Remus, who gave her a slight frown “On your own?”

“Yeah, Sev’s at our friends house, I wanted to get ahead of the marking, and it gives him a guilt free night at the pub”

Remus frowned “I can’t imagine him at a pub”

Jade smirked “Apparently there’s a lot about him you don’t know”

He picked up a copy of the Prophet and handed it to her “Well, you two have made front page news”

With a groan, Jade glanced down at the article.

 

**_ ‘Auror Jade Greenlake and Severus Snape expecting summer baby’ _ **

_After the attempted break in at Hogwarts by Sirius Black on Saturday night (Story continues on Page 4) Auror and Hogwarts Herbology teacher Jade Greenlake (formerly Potter) announced that she is pregnant. It is understood that this wasn’t a planned announcement but happened whilst she was co-ordinating the search of the castle for Sirius Black._

_Auror Greenlake and Severus Snape were at Hogwarts together, and it has recently come out that the pair were engaged in a relationship at school, and periodically since then. The unlikely pair are now in their second year teaching together at Hogwarts, and students report that they appeared ‘closer than ever’ in the recent months._

_How Headmaster Albus Dumbledore feels about this is not yet known as he hasn’t replied to our request for a comment. Rufus Scrimgeour, who runs the Auror Department said ‘Jade Greenlake’s position in the department will not change because of a pregnancy, and we are happy to welcome her back as and when she wants to”_

_Jade Greenlake was awarded the Order of Merlin-_

_-_

She stopped reading, rolling her eyes and putting the paper down “You’re kidding me? That’s front page and Sirius breaking in is on page 4?”

Remus shrugged “People are idiots, especially at the Prophet. You want some of these pancakes? They’re amazing”

 

\--//--

Harry caught Jade after breakfast as she was walking down a corridor and she turned with a fond smile “Oh, Harry, I was going to find you today anyway”

“I thought you were away until tonight, everything okay?”

“Yes dear, I’ve just got a lot of marking to catch up on, do you want to go for a walk?”

He nodded and they walked side by side down and out on to the grounds. It wasn’t as warm as it had been recently, and they had a walk along the grass and sat down side by side, watching the Weasley twins levitating acorns for a group of people nearby.

Jade stretched awkwardly “I realise that you’ve got a lot to deal with Harry. I know I sort of dropped a bomb metaphorically and ran off. We were looking at the House actually, work should start soon enough and then I’ll let you decide on how we decorate you room once the walls are in place”

He smiled “I’ve never decorated my own room”

She gave him a rather sad look at that “Well, get planning, though you’ve got some time. There’s actually something else I wanted to talk to you about, I don’t know if it has ever been explained to you fully, the, uh, about Sirius Black”

Harry frowned “He’s in the Prophet every day, everyone knows about him”

“Harry, my year at Hogwarts was an extraordinary set of students. Neville’s parents were in there -Frank was one of my best friends actually. Remus – Professor Lupin, Severus, both your parents, Amelia Bones, poor old Peter Pettigrew…  Sirius Black was in our year group as well… he was, well, he was our friend”

Harry didn’t look upset or shocked, he just looked impassive at the news, and she carried on.

“I don’t know how much you know about him, I don’t always read the Prophet when it mentions him because I find it upsetting, and I don’t want you to find out and be upset. You see, Harry, Sirius Black was a Gryffindor, from a long, long line of Slytherin’s – his cousin is Draco’s mother in fact. Anyway, Sirius was a friend of your fathers, they were in a group of four, and they were the absolute bane of my existence as a teenager. Of the four of them, your father and Sirius were closest. Sirius had parents who threw him out and mum and dad – your grandparents- took him in. He was another brother to me, to be honest. We were three siblings, we all relied on each other, sometimes I was closer to him than your father. James trusted Sirius more than anything in the world, and you’ve got to remember that when your parents died, we were all only 21, that is still very young. None of us knew that Sirius was working for Voldermort, he betrayed your parents and that’s why they died. It broke my heart to find out James was dead, but when I worked out that it was because Sirius had betrayed them, I think that hurt just as much. Unfortunately as I was an Auror I was at such a high risk of being killed or captured that someone else had to be the secret keeper… and unfortunately they put their faith in Sirius, and he betrayed them”

Harry saw the complete heartbreak on Jade’s face as she spoke and swallowed “I didn’t know he was Dad’s friend”

“He was James’ best friend, and we had our differences, but it was like I had two brothers, and the fact that he betrayed us, and caused James, Lily and Peter… well, I didn’t want you to find out from someone else”

“Is that why?”

Jade blinked “Why what?”

“At the end of last year when you took over Lockhart’s DADA classes, you said once that you should always be careful who you trust”

She was clearly surprised that he had been listening that closely and shrugged “It threw me, Harry, it did. I didn’t see it coming, and I have spent a decade trying to work out how I missed it”

Harry nodded, not sure what to say as Jade glanced at her feet, clearly sad. She sighed “I’ll let you think about it and go see your friends. You know you can come to me and ask me anything, at any time, okay. Even if it’s about Sirius Black, understand”

“Yes. Thank you for telling me, are you coming back up?”

Jade shook her head “No, I just need some time alone”

He gave her an encouraging smile and stood and left, leaving Jade to her thoughts and memories. Talking about Sirius with Harry just seemed so strange, especially after spending time back at Potter House, a place she had spent so much time with James and Sirius.

After James and Lily’s wedding she and Sirius had both gone back and slept at Potter House, though obviously in different beds, and after Jade had spent a while making out with Caradoc Dearborn out the back of the marquee, and Sirius had slept with someone but she couldn’t remember who. They had intended to return to their own places but had been too drunk to apparate as far as London so had gone back to the old house.

The wedding had been lovely, and as best man and maid of honour, they had spent a lot of time together, even though it was in the middle of a war. Sat by herself, Jade’s mind drifted back to the strongest memory of Sirius from that day, the reception already in full swing by that time.

 

_The bridesmaids dresses were floor length and made out of a dusty pink silky material, and fitted to Jade’s slim frame, thin spaghetti straps holding it up and a slight v in the material at the front and at the back was buttoned, the back low and virtually backless. Her curly dark hair was in a twist, a neat updo with a few curls carefully hanging out, and some little white flowers carefully dotted through the back, and she had her makeup carefully minimal, and she looked radiant._

_Jade was sat at a table with Frank Longbottom and Gideon Prewett as people danced around them, the three of them discussing the Ireland Rugby team over a round of vodka shots and champagne._

_She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Sirius standing behind her with a wry grin. He looked good, James had chosen muggle suits and ties for the men in the wedding party as it just looked sleeker than dress robes._

_Sirius held his hand out in the most dramatic flourish she’d ever seen with a mock ‘posh voice’ “would m’lady care for a dance?”_

_She just laughed, taking the last sip of her champagne and taking his hand as he helped her up._

_“Well, seeing as you asked so nicely, for once”_

_Sirius threw a hand to his mouth in mock shock “I’m always a bloody dream, you don’t know what you’re talking about”_

_The music was slow and all the couples dancing slowed down._

_Their bodies were close and her right hand was clasping his left, her spare arm around his shoulders behind his back as his was around her middle. Their hands that were together were curled up against Sirius’ shoulder and they were moving slowly to the music._

_“Do you fancy a shag after this then?”_

_Jade just laughed, resting her head on his shoulder, aware that he was joking “oh yeah definitely, how about we ask Moony to come and join us eh?”_

_She felt the rumble of his laugh from his chest as they kept moving._

_“You want to get married one day?”_

_She considered “no, not really. I think if I’m happy with someone then why spend all that money on an event that’s going to last a few hours and everyone will be too drunk to remember properly?”_

_“Also, don’t you have to be a virgin to wear a white dress?”_

_She pulled back, a mock look of shock on her face as she looked at his massive smirk “you think Lily is? As if we haven’t all heard an unfortunate amount of noise from their room recently?”_

_Sirius shuddered “don’t. He’s spent years talking about her and now he’s got her he’s certainly making up for lost time. Anyway, I think your parents would applaud your stance on marriage, they only married after being together years because it was an excuse for a party your mum told me”_

_She laughed “sounds like them. I can’t imagine I’ll ever find someone who makes me as happy as they were. Being an auror doesn’t exactly create an environment for a healthy relationship”_

_He nodded “no, I can imagine. But once the war is over things will settle down I’m sure, you’ll have more time. You’ll never be alone, you’re too good a catch”_

_“Thanks Padfoot. How about we make a pact- if we’re not married or with someone by the time we’re 35 then we’ll get married and just churn out a bunch of kids”_

_Sirius laughed at that with a nod “agreed. Though I’m surprised you want to wait so long, I really am I a great catch” he muttered into her ear “and a phenomenal shag”_

_Jade let out a snort of laughter and the song came to an end. Sirius kisses her on the cheek “see you at 35, I’ll be in the suit, you’ll be in the white dress, I’ll try not to mix them up. Anyway, I’m off to try my luck with the other bridesmaids”_

_He gave her a mock salute and walked off towards the drinks table. Jade glanced around and saw Peter walking over with two whiskeys, handing one to her._

_“Thanks Pete. I don’t even want to think about what Sirius is getting up to tonight”_

_“Christ, I’ve shared a dormitory with him long enough to know that’s a wise decision”_

 

\--//--

Sirius was staring at the cave wall with a vacant expression, tears in his eyes, and a stolen copy of the Daily Prophet in his hands, the article on Jade having been read repeatedly.

At no point had he or Jade actually intended to marry each other, let alone try and have children, both were more likely to try and have it off with the giant squid. Not that he thought she wasn’t attractive, he wasn’t blind after all, but they’d spent far too much time as essentially brother and sister for it not to be slightly gross.

What made him cry was the realisation of what he was missing. He’d half come to terms with missing out on Harry’s life, but now knowing that there was another Potter -he’d never really adjusted to the use of the Greenlake name and certainly couldn’t think of her baby being a Snape- baby on the way that he was going to miss out on.

The brave, smart, successful, talented, beautiful, quick, loyal friend who was basically his sister. He wouldn’t see her stomach get bigger, feel the kicks, see her light up as he helped decorate the nursery.

She was having a baby that he wouldn’t hold, wouldn’t know, and who would think that the reason it’s mother spent her birthday at a grave that said ‘James Potter’ on it was because he, Sirius, had betrayed them all. Sirius would be the boogeyman, the story to keep the child from misbehaving, the story about food and evil, about trusting others, and about consequences. That was what was causing this crushing, aching feeling inside his chest.

Sat in that dark, dingy cave, Sirius felt a steely resolution that this time, the next time, he’d kill that stupid fat rat.


	39. Chapter 39

Jade glanced around the first class of the week, her fifth years, seeing the way they were all closely looking at her and she sighed, expression softening.

“Right, well, we all know I’m pregnant. You have all read the Prophet, I’m not answering questions, so shall we all get on with our work, or do you all want to fail your exams?”

Everyone looked quickly back down at their textbooks, and Jade looked rather amused, a hand flittering to her still flat stomach, wondering how much longer it was going to take before she starts to show, though if she kept having the house elves drop off chocolate cake then it wouldn’t be long at all.

\--//--

Jade’s last class of the day was the third year Slytherin’s, and they didn’t seem to really know how to take the news of the pregnancy, seeing as it was with their Head of House and she was a teacher who judged them more fairly than most, they were just treating her with a fairly guarded respect.

She had handed them back their essays, which had been a range of good to middling, and most of them seemed happy enough except Draco, the blonde boy looking at the grade awkwardly before turning the parchment over, she presumed so none of his friends could see the grade.

As they started to file out at the end of the class, Jade called out-

“Mr Malfoy, a word”

Draco hung back, motioning for Goyle to leave before turning with a guarded expression back to her when they were alone in the greenhouse.

“Right, Draco. I wanted to say that your essay wasn’t great. You’re actually one of the best students in the Slytherin class in your year. I know you don’t want to be seen as a geek or whatever, but if you keep doing as well in Herbology, DADA, Potions and Charms, you can get _any_ job you want. I know you’ve got your family name, but it doesn’t work as well as it used to. In the Ministry you used to be able to get around by just dropping who you knew, or who you were related to, but frankly now, it will probably hold you back. To be honest, I got the position at the Ministry _despite_ who my parents were. People didn’t want to look like I got it through nepotism. Do you see what I am trying to say Draco? If you don’t keep your grades up, what is your plan? Actually, even if you do keep your grades up, what is the plan for your life?”

Draco frowned, looking like he was trying not to pout “I don’t know, I don’t know what I’m going to do”

“I know you’re only in your third year, but if you don’t do well enough now, your choices for your OWL exams will be limited, and by default your NEWTS will suffer. Don’t be an idiot, do your work and make sure you can keep your options open Draco”

He just looked at her for a few seconds before managing an awkward nod and barely met her eyes as he shrugged “Okay”

Jade looked appeased “Go on, and if you need help with the essay, just _ask_ me for some help, but I’ll expect it to be back to your usual good grades, now get along back to the castle okay”

“Yes, Professor”

He started to walk away and turned back “Ah, Professor?”

“Yup?”

“In her last letter my mum said she’s going to invite you and Professor Snape over to the Manor for dinner some time. Snape is a good friend of the family, she wants to get to know you, considering you’re…”

“The word is pregnant, Draco, and I don’t really think that would be a good idea, considering the, ah, history we all share, but I’ll see, thanks for letting me know”

\--//--

After a relatively quiet week or so, Remus and Jade were talking at dinner and as Severus came in she beckoned him over, and he came down towards them, a hand gently on Jade’s back as he bent down towards where they were talking quietly.

“What’s wrong?”

Their voices were quiet, at the end of the table so they weren’t really overheard “Nothing, we were just talking about Sirius”

He nodded and waited until Jade continued after Remus nodded at her to continue.

“We never really spoke about it, but you said you never saw him at Death Eater meetings?”

He just shook his head, there were no secrets about his past with Jade, and it wasn’t like Remus didn’t know what he had been.

“No. Regulus sometimes, but not Sirius, never even heard his name mentioned. Then again, He knew we had all been at school together, so never mentioned to me anything about anyone having the Potter’s location or any of that”

Remus nodded slowly and Severus glanced at him “What are you thinking?”

“I don’t believe what Sirius said about Peter, we only found a finger from him and he never really had it in him to do something so duplicitous”

Jade sighed “Yes but we said that about Sirius once”

Both men looked sobered by that thought and Severus moved his fingers along her back a little to offer a bit of reassurance and lowered his voice a little again.

“Look, you can go around and around over and over, but even if somehow Pettigrew became secret keeper at the last minute, and was giving away Order secrets, and was then also somehow able to what, cut off his own finger, kill those muggles, and hide away for all these years, you’d have to have them both in front of the Wizengamot, and prove it to them. I know you’re friends with Amelia Bones but she can’t change the law to fit you. This is all if we assume Black wasn’t just you know, lying through his teeth as usual”

Remus nodded thoughtfully “I know, neither of us think he was telling the truth, we’re just taking it from different angles”

Severus nodded and slipped into the empty seat beside Jade and she leant over for a quick kiss that he let her give, neither really caring as much as previously about being seen by the students, as their secret was well and truly out.

Jade had a content little smile as she tucked into her bowl of cereal, though still consumed with thoughts on Sirius and Peter.

\--//--

 

Jade was starting to feel tired a lot more and noticed that she was needing to wee a lot more frequently, but everyone she knew was giving her pregnancy advice -whether she asked for it or not- and it seemed like this was fairly normal. She just felt bloated, rather than obviously pregnant, but every night Severus either fell asleep with a hand on her stomach or she woke up with him draped over her, a hand gently against the tiny, tiny swell of her stomach that was barely visible.

After experiencing her first bout of morning sickness the day before the big Gryffindor Quidditch game, Jade had made her way up to the surprisingly quiet Hospital Wing, where Poppy was sorting out some bottles of potions.

“Ah, Jade dear, are you okay?”

“Yes I just wondered if you had a nausea potion, I’ve been a bit sick today, I assume it’s the little one”

Poppy nodded and rifled through the bag in front of her and handed Jade a small grey potion “There you go. Severus brews it for us so it’s good. Do you want me to check on the baby?”

Jade nodded as she drank the potion gratefully and Poppy muttered a spell that made her stomach glow with a golden light for a few seconds.

“All good. A very healthy little one you’ve got in there. You must be due a check up soon”

“Well actually Poppy, about that-”

Poppy was practically bouncing on her toes with excitement “Please tell me you’re here so I can do the checks on the baby?”

Jade half rolled her eyes but wasn’t actually annoyed “Yes, well, sort of. We had a muggle Doctor check everything was okay, but I can’t go to and from St Mungo’s regularly, and if something goes wrong then-”

“yes- yes- yes! I’d absolutely love to look after you and baby Snape, oh my god this is very exciting _Very_ , very exciting. Is if going to be a baby Snape or what surname as you’re not married?”

“Snape, or maybe Greenlake-Snape, I’m not sure, I think we’ve got time to work it out. Either double barrelled or just his surname, not sure”

“So Greenlake not Potter for sure? I know you changed your name years ago”

“The Potter surname just makes me think of James too much, and we’re already naming him after James, it’ll be too much”

Poppy smiled “So it’s a boy then?”

“Alastor Moody told me, strangely enough! I promised my brother when we were teenagers that if I had a son I’d call him James. I like to think that somewhere up there, he’s immensely smug about it all”

Poppy laughed at that “Yes, I do think your brother would find that rather amusing. I have lots of memories of him and the ‘Marauders’ in here with various injuries from their ridiculous escapades. I think I’d only been here for a year before you all started your first year. You certainly put me through my paces. You weren’t such a problem, you were mostly in here because one of them had put you in here”

“What, like when my brother removed all the bones in my hand for ‘fun’ that time, simultaneously cutting open the palm on my other hand?”

Poppy just laughed at the memory.

-/-

_A thirteen year old James had blood gushing out of his nose, which was at a horrible angle, and his glasses were skewed as they struggled to sit on his swollen, bleeding nose._

_Madame Pomfrey directed him to a bed and muttered something about being right back and hurried off for some medication._

_James heard a low groan and glanced at the bed opposite him on the other side of the room and saw Jade glaring at him._

_She looked terrible, her left arm bandages heavily and she looked furious he was there, clearly trying to take a nap, blanket over her and wearing pyjamas._

_“Oh for gods sake what did you do now?”_

_“Tried a new spell with Sirius. Did **not** go well”_

_“I gathered. I had been hoping for a good nights sleep”_

_James was still trying to stem the bleeding by tipping his nose back and walked over to Jade’s bed, sitting heavily and dramatically on the end, deliberately squashing her feet._

_“My god Bug it almost sounds like you’re calling me annoying” he mocked looking offended “but we both know I’m a gift to humanity”_

_“If I could lift either of my hands right now I would swear at you”_

_James just barked out a laugh and Jade reached over for her wand, and muttered the spell that stopped the bleeding dripping on her blanket._

_Madame Pomfrey came back and didn’t look surprised to see James sat on the end of Jade’s bed and handed him a potion._

_“Potter, don’t sit on your sisters feet, and drink this. You’ll be in for the night, both of you”_

_Jade groaned “Can’t you send him somewhere else? Anywhere? The Dungeons? The Shack? Azkaban?”_

_She laughed “Sorry, you’re stuck together, I’ll be back later”_

_She left and James drank the potion and swung both his legs up on her bed, the two of them at opposite ends of the narrow bed, one twin under the blanket looking furious, one with a face of blood looking smug and very proud of themselves._

_Later that night James was sat at the other end of Jade’s bed and they were playing wizarding snap as quietly as they could – even though Jade barely had use of either hand- so that they didn’t wake Madame Pomfrey and they had eventually fallen asleep. When she had done the rounds in the morning she had just smiled at the sight of the twins sleeping top and tail on the same bed._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just a little bit of an 'inbetween' chapter.


	40. Chapter 40

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, like, I'm beyond tired (I have a toddler so no further explanations needed) and don't have the energy to check over this more closely so sorry in advance if not the best.........

The weather really was crap the following day, and it was like the summer had fucked off only for heavy rain, thunder and lightning to follow instead. It was Gryffindor Vs Hufflepuff and Jade was a former player for Gryffindor with a nephew on the team, but she was the Head of Hufflepuff (still, no one had actually bothered to ask her, it had just sort of happened the longer Sprout spent abroad).

Jade saw Harry in the morning at breakfast, wishing him luck, before having a quick chat with the Hufflepuff team before they kicked off, and Cedric Diggory, who was a student she really liked, explained that the fact all of the team had done warming charms but that the waterproof charms didn’t work so well when at speed, so were useless on the brooms.

She had to agree and there wasn’t exactly time to teach them anything that would work, so she trudged up to the teachers section, wearing jeans, mud splattered leather boots, a black hoodie and her hair in a bun to try and keep it off her face in the wind. She wasn’t too wet as she knew enough charms to keep her dry, but it was a thoroughly miserable day.

She settled between Remus and Severus at the front of the box, and turned to look behind her where McGonnaghal and Dumbledore were sat.

“How are we letting them play in this weather? They can barely see a few feet in front of them”

Minerva shrugged a little “We offered both teams to call it off because of rain, but it’s two very stubborn captains, so they both demanded to pay today”

The game kicked off, and Jade kept her eyes peeled through the rain until Cedric and Harry disappeared into the clouds.

Through the burst of lightning they saw Diggory fall a short distance on his broom, before he came back around and landed groggily.

Seconds later, everything started to go cold, and Jade knew immediately what it was, the cold dread horribly familiar to her.

The Dementor’s had breached the boundaries again.

Within seconds they were visible and the students started to freak out.

Then, Harry appeared, falling through the clouds as he plummeted beside his spinning broom.

Dumbledore slowed Harry down and as one, multiple teachers fired their patronuses. Most of the younger students had never seen one, and seeing around ten of the silvery white animal forms charging over the pitch just amazed them.

There was a cat, a phoenix, a wolf, what looked like a horse, a fox, and lots that weren’t too clear in the commotion, though it wasn’t missed on those who understood the nature of a patronus forms that there was two very similar looking jaguar forms.

\--//--

 

Jade had visited Harry in the hospital wing when he woke up, apologising they hadn’t been able to save the broom, but she promised that she’d get him a new one ASAP.

Cedric Diggory had been quite shaken up as well, but had been fine.

It was barely after lunch by the time the whole match was over and everyone was a bit frazzled. Poppy had assured Jade that Harry was fine and would just need a bit of a sleep, and the same was for Diggory so she should head back to her own rooms and warm up. It was a Saturday so it was a relatively quiet day for the teachers otherwise.

She’s caught Oliver Wood on the way down to her own rooms as he headed up to Gryffindor tower, looking like he might try finding some firewhiskey from somewhere to drown his sorrows. She’s told him the team had played well and headed down to her rooms, where the fire was already on, there was chocolate cake on a little plate on her table with a neatly written note on it in Severus’ familiar handwriting.

_‘Enjoy the cake, get yourself warm. We’re going out for dinner tonight, I’ll get you at 6. I need to do more potions brewing and it might not be safe for the baby so you should stay here. I hope Harry is okay. Wear something nice, and I’ve cleared our Head of House absences with Minerva._

_All my love_

_S’_

Jade smiled, wrapping a blanket around herself, sitting in front of the fireplace and eating the cake before she could even consider getting changed. Regardless, she had several hours to get ready, and right now, there was cake to demolish.

 

Jade was wearing a strapless purple dress that went straight down to just above her knees, showing the very, very tiny hint of a bump and she had a pair of black strappy heels on and her hair was straightened.

Severus smiled, kissing her as he gently touched her stomach.

“You look amazing, as usual”  
  
He was wearing a long sleeved dark grey charcoal shirt with black trousers, his hair pushed back a little.

“Shall we?”

She nodded, taking his hand as they took the floo to his house before he side on apparated her to a small clearing. It was fairly dark out but Jade could see they weren’t near anything but a few lights through the trees, and they walked together down as the lights got nearer.

Jade glanced at him, seeing how awkward he looked.

“Where are we going?”

“We’re going out for dinner”

“Okay cool-“

“At Malfoy Manor”

She stilled, looking up at him with amusement and surprise in the semi darkness “you can’t be serious?”

“They’re my friends”

Jade faltered “yes I’m aware of that, but I’m an auror, and the Malfoy’s were Death Eaters”

“So was I”

Jade glared at him “that’s different and you know it. Lucius went to the press last year about our relationship at Hogwarts for Merlin’s sake!”

“You don’t know for sure it was him”

Jade just cocked her eyebrow at him and Severus nodded, conceding her point “Right, yes well it probably was him I’ll agree with you there, but it really doesn’t matter now, everyone knows anyway”

Jade just shook her head “You are far too trusting of him. He’s a complete prick”

“Uhuh, well, shall we head down, don’t want to seem rude”

He tugged at her hand and Jade walked beside him, though a little bit slower as she was really, really not too happy, and they joined the path as the large gates around the Manor came into view.

 

She had been there before, of course. In a very different entity however, as an Auror, both searching and arresting, so they were going to have a distinctly awkward evening. Jade appreciated that Narcissa and Lucius were friends with Severus, and she wasn’t bothered by that, but she was just not willing to spend time with them, mostly because she was so uncomfortable being around them given her position not just as an Auror but a Senior Auror with an Order of Merlin.  
  
Narcissa and Lucius were incredibly polite and welcoming, just like they were meeting the girlfriend of their friend, not like Jade had once arrested Lucius when Draco was only six days old…

They’d had to let him go but it didn’t exactly lend itself to a casual chat over dinner. There was also the fact that Lucius had been the one who had given the Aurors the location of where McLeish, Bellatrix and the others had been when the twins had died and Jade had been close to death herself.

Jade doubted that Narcissa was aware of who it was that had given Jade the location of Bellatrix when she was in hiding after Voldermort had died, and Jade doubted that Narcissa would have stayed with her husband if she had an idea.

  
As they sat at the dinner table, Jade felt nauseous and it had nothing to do with the pregnancy. She was sitting at the table opposite the death eater she had once helped arrest -though who it turned out had saved her life twice - and the sister of the woman who had tortured her friends to insanity, and had tortured Jade herself with dark magic.

Narcissa looked very little like Bellatrix, but Jade just felt a little suffocated, trying to make polite conversation, as she picked at her food, even though she had to admit it was bloody delicious.

Jade was conscious of her scars and lightly scratched her shoulder and held the hand there, crossed over her chest and covering the jagged marks on her body.

Lucius noticed of course and lazily put his fork down “we’ve seen the scarring before, you don’t have to hide it. My wife has always found her sisters actions abhorrent”

She lowered the hand but looked distinctly uncomfortable “if I had known we were coming here, I’d have worn something that... covered.... a bit more”

Lucius and Severus met eyes, Jade was looking at her food intently and Narcissa acted like nothing had happened “I must say Jade, pregnancy seems to be treating you well, you look radiant”

The tension was palpable and Jade was half wondering if she could just work out an excuse to leave, say she was worried about Harry or the situation with the dementors, but she didn’t want to upset Severus, who was quite relaxed, chatting to his friends comfortably.

  
After the main course they had a bit of a break, and it was as Lucius was showing Severus some papers in the adjoining room that Narcissa looked up at the still very awkward Jade and smiled gently.

“You know you remind me of her, Bella”

Jade flashed a venomous look and Narcissa explained “not in that sense. The long dark curly hair, from behind you look similar to how she did in our younger years. Before all the fanaticism took over, she was a very promising young student, just like you she had the skills to do absolutely anything with her future, but you’re I guess, the exact example of what she could have been if she hadn’t been so… tempted, and so **_stupid_**. You have been very successful, and she’s sat in Azkaban, so I guess it isn’t too hard to work out who is the winner and who is the loser there”

Jade wasn’t sure what to say and Narcissa just sighed “siblings, it is a very difficult relationship isn’t it”

As she spoke Lucius and Severus came back in, and Jade was watching the other woman who had the slightly sad look on her face as she poured some more wine, and Jade wondered if she was thinking about Bellatrix or Andromeda.  
  
  
The house elves served the dessert, which was lovely, but Jade still felt horribly uncomfortable, only half heartedly joining in the conversations.

Jade had a white scar on her right leg that wrapped in a crescent moon shape from behind her knee and down in a C shape over her calf, and over time it had lessened into a more skin coloured mark and was less noticeable. She was absently scratching at the dry skin there as Narcissa noticed it and politely asked.

“What happened?”

Jade’s eyes were intense as she glanced up “your brother in law hexed me through a shop window. I nearly bled out”

There was a silence and Jade popped a grape into her mouth distractedly “still arrested him though”  
She stood quickly “I’m going to get some air”  
  
  
Jade moved through the multiple sitting rooms and out through the large doors and out on to the large patio area at the back of the Manor. The sun had gone down but the gardens were still relatively lit up by the lights from the house. She sat on the stone steps at the end of the patio, where it went down to the gardens. She took a few steadying breaths, arms tightly around her torso.

After a few minutes there was a noise from the doors and Jade glanced behind her, expecting it to be Severus but blinked in evident surprise as she saw Lucius Malfoy there.

He stood in the doorway, before coming on to the patio and leaning on his cane as he looked down over the gardens “very different from Potter House I believe, my father thought the maze was ingenious, I just thought it was ridiculous. Takes a lot of upkeep”

Jade kept staring forwards as well, eyes fixed pointedly on something in the distance “I’ll bet. Magical plans I can look after, but things like roses and tulips I’ve got no idea”

Lucius nodded and they were in a companionable silence for a long time before Jade looked at the older, blonde man.

“Why did you do it?”

He glanced at her “Why did I do what?”

“You’ve saved my life twice. When Bellatrix had me in that house, after Gideon and Fabian were dead, I was dying, no question about that, but you are the one who sent the location to the Auror’s, and it saved my life. Then you told me where to find Bellatrix, after what happened with Frank and Alice, and we were able to arrest her. You didn’t have to help me either time. You know, I always got the vibe with you in the war that your heart wasn’t really in it”

Lucius scratched his chin thoughtfully “honestly? Honestly I don’t know why”

“You could have used it as a bargaining chip. I helped keep you out of azkaban because you told me where she was to arrest her, and I got a lot of shit for doing that. If we’d known you’d given the location as well, then you’d never have even been called for a trial”

Lucius understood but shrugged “I don’t know why I did it. Now you should get inside, it’s getting cold, Severus is worrying about you”  
  
\--//--

Jade was still furious at Severus once they got back to the Castle that night. When they had come back through the floo she had stalked immediately off to the Hospital Wing, saying it was to check on Harry, though it was late and she knew he would be asleep.

In truth, she wasn’t really that upset with him, she got that he wanted her and his friends to sort of co-exist, whilst lots of their friends were mutual, she had some that he wasn’t exactly a fan of.

As Jade sat in the chair next to where Harry was sleeping in the Hospital Wing, she couldn’t help but think that he probably didn’t get how different it was for her. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Narcissa and Lucius because they had been annoying at school- which was Severus’ gripe with some of Jade’s friends- she had literally arrested Lucius and brought him in for questioning about being a Death Eater. Neither he nor Narcissa had ever been charged with anything so there was no issues with Jade being at their house, but she still felt highly uncomfortable.

 

After a little while sat there silently, Jade realised she wasn’t as upset as she had been, and kissed Harry’s forehead, standing up and heading down to Severus’ rooms.

He was in bed with the lights off, and she carefully came in, taking her shoes, dress and bra off before slipping under the covers beside him.

Sleepily Severus turned over to look at her in the darkness “I thought you might be too annoyed-”

Jade just snuggled up to him sleepily “Please just stop talking, I’m really tired”

After a beat Severus kissed her gently and soon they were both fast asleep.

\--//--

Harry had double potions on Monday and whilst a lot of people were still making jokes about the fact he had passed out during the Quidditch match on the weekend but the class was generally tolerable.

He was leaving the class when Severus called out.

“Potter? Can you stay behind please”

Harry held back as his friends left and it was just him sat at his desk as Severus sat at the teachers desk, looking awkward “Harry, I, Well, I wanted to check that you are okay, after the dementors”

Harry didn’t have enough wherewithal to try and hide his surprise “oh, yeah, sure, I - are we doing this then?”

Severus shrugged “I’m as surprised as you are Potter”

“Okay... well yes, I’m fine. It was scary but I’ll be okay. Professor Lupin said he will teach me a patronus in case it happens again”  
Harry watched as Snape nodded thoughtfully “that’s good. Jade can help if needed….” Severus exhaled lightly “well, I know how a dementor can seem like a terrifying thing, but once you realise your fear is nothing but an emotion, then it has no power over you- and neither do the dementors”

Harry was quiet for a few seconds before managing to reply “oh- thanks professor”

“This is awkward for both of us, you can go now”

Harry was going to say something but just nodded and picked his bag up “Well, thanks Professor…”

He left as quickly as possible and literally ran into Jade down the corridor, having a quick conversation about his day before she saw Severus coming down the otherwise empty corridor and Harry made a rather hasty escape, muttering something about dinner.

Jade smiled “what were you two idiots talking about?”

Jade leant her back against the wall as Severus shrugged “the dementors, I don’t know, it was horribly awkward for us both”

She smiled and pulled at his robes, giving him a brief kiss before he pulled back, lips pulled up into a slight smile. He didn’t move far, body still close to her own,

“What was that for?”

“I appreciate you trying, I know it’s not easy, considering who his father was”

“Well, he matters to you doesn’t he”

Severus our his hand on her face and kissed her for a second before they heard some noise at the end of the corridor and broke apart, turning to look at who was there.

It was Lucas Farris and Percy Weasley, looking a little bit stressed and very awkward.

“Uh, sorry professor- professor ** _s_** \- um...”

Severus has moved back from Jade a little, hand dropping to her side “spit it out Farris”

“Oh yeah, sorry. We were on our way to the Prefects Meeting with McGonnaghal and there’s a bunch of Hufflepuff fifth years having a fight over something up in the charms corridor. We broke it up but seeing as you’re head of Hufflepuff now...”

Jade nodded “yeah, fine, I’ll have a word with them, thanks boys”

She glanced at Severus with a smile “I’ll see you at dinner” and she left him, following the two last year students.  
  
Jade glanced between the two students “sorry if seeing us kissing made you feel awkward”

Lucas frowned with a amused expression “uh, Professor, you’re pregnant, I’d assume you’d at least kissed”

She snorted a laugh “Yes, thank you for that, now lets go find some students for me to shout at”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you are all amazing x


	41. Chapter 41

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why this has taken me quite so long to do. Sorry all!

The weather was starting to get noticeably colder as the winter started to creep in, and Jade become more and more noticeably pregnant. The work on Potter House was being overseen by a team headed up by someone that Arthur Weasley knew from school, and they were remarkably fast and efficient, though they kept finding charms and runes warding parts of the house and Jade would have to come back briefly to release the magic on the part they were working on, and the magical architect Simon thought it was because the house wouldn’t be altered without a Potter there.

Jade and several of the other teachers had been helping Hagrid out with initial spells and charms, and he was doing quite well actually. Severus had half agreed he would teach him some potions but it was generally agreed that potions were quite far down the list of things he needed to learn, and it was something they were going to shelve for a bit.

Jade hadn’t been surprised or confused as to why Draco was pretending his arm was more injured by Buckbeak than it actually was. She had met Lucius, and she knew what sort of parent he was. Whilst he cared about his son, it was hard to get the attention he wanted, and this was one of his easiest ways of doing it.

Jade hadn’t tried to get too involved, though if the planned execution of Buckbeak at the end of the school year went ahead, Jade had already planned to meddle as much as possible and keep the Hippogriff alive.

Jade had never been one for doing what she was told.

 

It was a very cold morning and Jade had woken up because the baby was pressing hard against her bladder, so she had left Severus asleep, pulled on some clothes and gone for a walk through the castle.

It was a Saturday morning so it was pretty much empty, and she headed to the library to see if Irma had got the books in that she had ordered for the final year students to prep for their practice exams.

It was quite a while before breakfast even started so she didn’t encounter any students in the corridors, and pulled the cardigan more tightly around herself as she slipped in to the library quietly, not really thinking about who might be there.

She had assumed it was going to be empty so just moved through the aisles until she heard a noise and glanced through a gap in a bookcase to see two familiar faces sat at a work table.

Lucas Farris said something quietly that made Percy Weasley blush slightly. Lucas had grown a little over the summer and now they were about the same height, though he fit the height better than Percy, who had the same slightly lanky look that the twins and Ron had.  
Percy muttered something with pink tinged cheeks and Lucas glanced around, seeing no one around and the two gave the briefest, quickest kiss possible before breaking apart.

They both glanced around again, still thinking no one had seen them, and Percy looked like he was trying to stop himself beaming too widely and too obviously.

-

Not wanting to interrupt the moment, Jade had left the library quietly, hoping they didn’t hear the door go, and she’d retreated down to her own office in a lower corridor to attempt some marking as it was still ridiculously early.

Jade wasn’t surprised to hear a knock on her door about half an hour later, seeing an impossibly awkward looking Lucas Farris stood there, hands in his jeans pockets with a wary expression.

“Have you got a minute Professor? I know it’s still really early”

“Come in Lucas, that’s why we live here during term time, always on call to speak to students, even on the weekend. You want some tea?”

Lucas shook his head and closed the office door as he came in and sat down on the other seat on the other side of her desk, in the comfy little office filled with weird and wonderful potted plants and magical flowers.

Lucas looked awkward, fiddling with the hem of his sleeve as if there was a thread loose.

“Professor?”

“Yep?”

“I’m not gay”

Jade’s expression didn’t change and she just nodded and said ‘okay’ before going back to her book and Lucas clearly felt compelled to continue.

“I just, I know you saw us, me and Percy, in the library... I saw you leaving and I guess you saw the... the kissing...”

Jade put her quill down “honestly, Lucas, It isn’t a big deal and it’s none of my business”

He was clearly troubled by it and Jade leant back in her chair with a hand on her growing belly.

“If something is bothering you, my door is always open for any student of any house, you know that. If you want to talk about it then go ahead, if you want me to pretend I never saw it then fine. The wizarding world is far more accepting of, Well, everything, than the muggles are. I’m not even sure Kingsley’s marriage is legally binding in the muggle world yet...”

“I just, you know...”

“You’ll have to use more words than that Lucas”

“I’m not gay. I just like Percy Weasley”

Jade was silent as the Slytherin struggled to think through his thoughts “you know it’s just so weird. I always dated girls and I’ve never had a problem having sex- um- you know” he blushed deeply “but I just like Percy, but then if a girl goes by who really attractive I can still appreciate her body, but then when Percy and I are together I ... I don’t understand”

Jade felt thoroughly out of her depth. She wasn’t going to berate him for admitting he’d been having sex. Frankly she’d hardly been a virgin at Hogwarts, and their age of consent was the same as in the muggle world so it didn’t really matter too much to her.

She was sure other teachers would feel differently hearing the student were having sex but Jade didn’t think you could leave a bunch of hormonal teenagers in an isolated castle in the middle of nowhere with lots of secret passages and hidden corridors and empty classrooms without expecting at least a few of them to be getting it on with each other.

“My friend - former friend- he just sort of likes who he liked, quite indiscriminately. He wasn’t exactly one for being put into boxes or using labels”

Jade felt like it was a nice point but was glad she didn’t have to clarify that she was talking about Sirius Black, who had basically had anyone and everyone he ever wanted, and really hadn’t cared if it was a man or woman. The sentiment was lost if she mentioned she was referring to a famous on the run murderer who had killed his friend and a large amount of Muggles.

“I’m not _ashamed_ that we’re together, I just, well I’m not gay and I don’t want Percy thinking I’m stringing him on, or that I am going to be trying to get married… I don’t know what to do”

Jade sat forward, glad that the boy had someone he could talk to about this, even if she wasn’t sure how helpful she was being.

“Just be honest with Percy. It is no one’s business but your own, but just don’t break his heart, okay? You are still young, there’s time to find out who you are and what you want”

Lucas had left with a deeply troubled expression and Jade had sat there with a thoughtful expression before awkwardly getting herself out of the seat, trying to work out if she felt nauseous or hungry.

After glancing at the clock an seeing it was still quite early, Jade decided to head further down the corridor to where Remus had his rooms, and knocked gently in case he was asleep.

After a few seconds there was a scuffle and then the door opened, and Remus glanced at her with bleary eyes and obvious bed hair.

“Oh, hey you, come in, I’ve just made some coffee. Oh you can’t drink coffee can you?”

Jade came in to his rooms, closing the door behind her and sitting down on his comfy sofa.

“No, no coffee unfortunately. Why were you up so early?”

Remus was pottering around, making himself a coffee and making Jade a tea, wearing his long pyjama trousers and an open dressing gown, clearly still half asleep.

“it’s getting towards the full moon again, the potion is a life saver but I still feel a bit out of sorts. I just feel so restless”

“try being several months pregnant”

He grinned and sat down in the armchair with his coffee and put the tea on the little table for her.

“No thanks. Being pregnant look awful and you’ve been moaning about needing a wee so much, I’ll assume he’s already living up to his troublemaking namesake?”

Jade laughed and rubbed her stretched feeling stomach “Oh yes. Baby James is going to be as much of a little monster as my brother was. Little troublemaker keeps kicking my bladder just for fun”

“Prongs would be thrilled to be honest”

Jade smiled and sipped her tea with a yawn “I’ve already had to deal with a students crisis, and breakfast has barely even started”

“Already? Not a good start to the weekend then. What happened?”

“Sexuality crisis. I won’t say who the student was, but he’s been seeing and maybe sleeping with one of his friends and he’s having a bit of a crisis. I didn’t really know what to say, I mean, I’ve had my own share of terrible flings”

“Didn’t you sleep with Ludo Bagman once?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me. Would have been nice if he’d not taken off his wedding ring before going to that party so I had known not to go anywhere near him. Horrible man, you can tell I wasn’t exactly sober at the time. We’ve all had some questionable relationships along the way”

Remus laughed, draining his coffee “Speak for yourself!”

“What, are you going to pretend you weren’t in love with Sirius?”

Remus let out a derisive scoff and looked shocked in a way that made Jade abundantly glad he’d never been an auror, or had to lie to death eaters as it was pretty comical the level, and was so obviously a lie it was ridiculous.

“In love? With Sirius? You’re kidding right? Firstly, I’m not gay. A-a-and secondly- how ridiculous- he’s a murderer, you think I’d be in love with - a man? You think I’d ever want him after-“

“Christ, can you stop talking Remus? When we were younger, Sirius wasn’t the person we know now. It was very clear to me, James and Peter you were in love with Padfoot”

“I’m not gay”

Jade shrugged “maybe not but you wanted Sirius”

Remus was in the middle of a flight or fight response choice and Jade just sat back with her hands on her stomach “you can’t help who you fall in love with. I spent so long hiding and sneaking around with Severus, and now that it is in the open, I’ve got my son on the way, I’m happy and my house is nearly finished. Maybe if you just put yourself out there a bit more, you would find someone”

Remus was rather thrown by the change of direction in the conversation and blinked with wide eyed confusion, reminding Jade of a sleepy bush baby “Wh- huh? I do put myself out there. I can’t meet someone because of my… condition”

Jade rolled her eyes and stood up, though it was slightly awkward as her bump was in the way and the sofa was very low. “You’re an idiot Moony. You’ve got the potion, and you can just arrange dates around your ‘time of the month’. My god you’re more moody than my teenage students sometimes. Anyway I’ve got to go, the baby is craving a massive breakfast, I’ll go wake Sev and have it in our room before we head out for the day. I’ll see you later”

She put the empty mug on the table and kissed a still slightly confused Remus on his hair before she left and headed back to her room, where she had left Severus asleep in the early hours of the morning.  
  
  
He was still half asleep when Jade came in, the room dark as she had left the curtains closed.

His voice was thick with sleep as he rolled over in the sheets, squinting at her even though the room was quite dark.

“Jade?”

“Who did you think it was? A House elf? McGonnaghal?”

“Ugh, please don’t talk about Minerva to me when I’m in bed and only wearing boxers, really doesn’t feel right”

Jade smirked and kicked off her shoes and jeans, curling back under the covers with him as she waved her wand to ignite the fire in the corner of the room.

“It is freezing today by the way, did you still want to visit the house? It’s snowing outside?”

He stretched lazily “J, of course it’s snowing, we’re in northern Scotland, it is literally only summer for two days a year. The house is in the South of England, I’m sure well be fine. Two witches, a wizard and a muggle, we’re probably not going to die of cold”

Jade just smiled and kissed him gently “I want you to know, you have made me very happy”

Now a bit more awake Severus sat up a bit in the bed, leaning on one elbow “You know that’s my line, not yours. You’ve given me everything”

“You know I always hoped we would find our way back together and we did. Now we’re together, we’re not hiding or sneaking around, and we’ve got a baby on the way that I never could have imagined I’d be able to have, and we’ll be moving in to the house together with Harry and the baby soon. You’ve literally given me everything I’d given up on hoping for”

He looked surprised at her words and gave her a quick kiss.

“You’re using all my best lines”

“Shut up and kiss me again”

 

 

Dumbledore had told Jade he couldn’t change the fact that she wasn’t Harry’s official guardian so he wasn’t allowed out for Hogsmeade visits. In typical Jade fashion she had decided to find a way around it.

Harry had the cloak and the map, and Jade had told him that as it was going to snow that weekend, if he was to sneak out then she was going to be away for the day, so she could just plead plausible deniability. She’d made it clear he shouldn’t be caught, and he’d been grateful when she had pointed out the best hidden tunnel for him to get to Hogsmeade, and reiterated that he had better not get caught. She’d stopped short of telling him not to do anything stupid, he was a lovely boy but he really was more like James than Lily sometimes.

She was going to the House with Severus to show Claire and Jacob around and check on the progress. They had spent rather a long time kissing in bed before having a house elf bring them some breakfast before changing and making their way to Potter House.

Severus was right of course, despite it snowing up at Hogwarts, Godrick’s Hollow was in the West Country, right down the south end of England, and whilst it was still a cold day, but the sky was clear and it was a lot less windy.

 

Jade was distinctly uncomfortable, her stomach feeling like it was already at maximum capacity despite having a bit of a way to go still.

There were no workers at Potter House as it was the weekend and Claire was walking around the grounds with Severus as he pointed out to her where they were planting various things once the house itself was finished.

Claire and Jacob’s son was at a play date with a friend and Jacob was walking around the inside with Jade, looking around the library with amazement.

“This is all stuff your dad wrote?”

“Both of them, mum and dad. They were both quite impressive... some of it is by them, some of it is just books that have been in the family a while”

“Anything interesting?”

Jade shrugged, glancing at the bound books where her parents workbook diaries sat “hard to know really. We’re going to have to go through it all. They did everything. Vaccines, antidotes, procedures for removing dark magic from artefacts, potions, charms, the whole lot. I found out recently they created the magic eye that Alastor Moody has...”

“Magic eye?”

Jade had forgotten Jacob was a muggle and had no clue what she was on about “he lost an eye years ago and before they died mum and dad had made the replacement he has now, probably just a prototype... it’s got very advanced magic in it, it was quite handy when we’re aurors”

“You’re still an auror though aren’t you?”

Jade pulled a face as she shrugged “yes, but I’m staying at Hogwarts until Harry graduates, and who knows if I’ll go back to it then”

“You’ve got time. Now, tell me what you’re doing with the baby’s room”  
  
  
Outside, both in coats and surrounded in warming charms, Claire pointed to the large pond “has that got anything terrible in it?”

Severus laughed “no, just some koi, I don’t think it’s really a good idea to put merpeople in the garden with kids running around l”

Claire glanced at him curiously “kids plural?”

“Calm down we’re only having the one. I meant Harry”

“Oh I see, of course. How are you feeling about living with the son of the man you hated, who also unfortunately looks the splitting image of him?”

“Never tell him I said it, but Harry’s a good kid. He’s a credit to his mother’s memory really.

His father was an idiot, but I can’t even stay angry at James Potter, because if he hadn’t been such an idiot, Jade wouldn’t have stuck up for me and maybe we’d never be where we are now”

Claire smiled and squeezed his bicep “it’s great to see you both so happy. No one deserves it more than the two of you”

“Jade deserves it”

“So do you”

“I don’t know about that”

Claire rolled her eyes and pointed to the overgrown patch of thorns “what exactly are they?”

“Thistlecraws”

Claire looked at him with obvious confusion “but they’re endangered aren’t they? They’re rare?”

Severus nodded “and very very expensive. Jade’s parents grew them. Must have cost a fortune”

She glanced at the enormous house behind them “well, I don’t imagine they were short a few pennies”

“The house has been in the family for generations, her parents had the benefit of family money which meant they had the time to do a lot of philanthropic work, the achievements of the Potter family though the generations are quite staggering. They’ve made the money a hundred times over. Can’t really compare it to the shit hole I grew up in”

“No, probably can’t, but your son is going to have the most fantastic mix of genetics. He’ll be so defiant you’ll rip your hair out”

That made him laugh before Claire asked  “How is the threat of Sirius Black being out still taking a toll on Jade?”

“She says she isn’t worried but I don’t think she knows she talks on her sleep. She’s very worried, not for herself of course. Jade doesn’t take self preservation very seriously as you know, and she’s a hell of a fighter- Black would be no match for her at all. She’s terrified he’ll go after Harry, or Daniel McLeish’s son”

“He had a son?”

“Yes. His ex wife suffered quite badly with him, and she took the kid and ran, thankfully. Ironically, she’s married to a muggle now. The boy is at Hogwarts and is one of the best students for both Jade and I, a prefect and a really good, kind person. Jade put the boy and his parents under official protection back in the summer, just in case Black tried anything”

“You’re not worried?”

“Personally? I’m worried about what he might do to Harry or anytime else, I am not personally worried, if he comes after me that’s fine, he can have a good go, I’m not worried”

“Sure are arrogant though”

“Maybe... we just have no clue what he’s up to or why. If he wanted to break out and lay low then why the hell has he tried to break into Gryffindor tower? I can’t put my finger on it, but with Black this whole thing just doesn’t make sense”  
Claire glanced to the house to make sure the other two couldn’t hear them “well, I remember at the time, when he was accused of the betrayal and killing those muggles and Peter- you and I spoke about how things just didn’t make sense, something didn’t fit”

Severus scratched his chin “don’t tell Jade that. She’s never got over losing James and Sirius in her life back to back like that... she’s always held on to this notion that maybe Sirius wasn’t crazy and maybe somehow he was telling the truth, then he can just come and live with her and she can replace that bit she thinks is missing”

“What if he is telling the truth? What is Black was framed this entire time?”

“Then Jade would never forgive herself”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe one day I'll do a chapter that isn't ridiculously long....
> 
> So, Lucas and Percy are quite important to the end of what happens in prisoner of azkaban (at least in my version), and maybe much, much later on...
> 
> So, Sirius breaks in again soon, and will Jade have to admit just how many unregistered animagi there were in her year group.... yeah, that will go down really well.
> 
> Thanks to everyone still reading! x


	42. Chapter 42

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, do Americans call December 26th Boxing Day or just the UK...?
> 
> So this was meant to be a quick bit of Christmas and then Sirius' break in but it got a bit carried away but the Sirius break-in chapter will be coming in the next few days.

Ron and Hermione were both staying at Hogwarts over Christmas so Harry had asked Jade if it was okay if he could as well, and she was glad as she had been so busy with everything that her apartment was still mostly in boxes, and the new house wasn’t quite done so it was probably for the best.

On Christmas Day Jade was woken by a rather persistent wave of nausea that sent her bolt upright at about 5am and she bolted for the bathroom and threw up twice.

After cleaning her teeth, Jade came back into the bedroom to see that Severus was sat up in the bed, blearily looking at her in the relatively dark room “Are you both okay?”

She nodded, tying her hair into a messy bun and slipping back under the covers “yes, just morning sickness, literally. Go back to sleep”

Severus shook his head groggily “No, it’s fine, I need to get used to a lack of sleep once the little one is here anyway. Merry Christmas”

Jade grinned at him and they shared a gentle kiss in the warm bed “Hopefully he sleeps as heavily as you do, though I don’t think we’ve really got ourselves prepared for having a baby yet. I guess we’ll just muddle through? I mean the house will be ready in a few weeks and we’re so busy between now and the end of the school year and then we’re going to have this baby about a week after the kids go home and we literally don’t have a single thing for him yet”

Severus stretched and picked his wand up from the bedside table, waving it to light the fireplace which lit the room up and the presents he had gotten for her flew over the room and land on the middle of the duvet.

“Actually, I’ve made a start on that, open them”

Jade frowned and started to unwrap the presents which she could tell were wrapped with magic, as they were perfectly folded and taped.

There was babygrows, blankets and a very soft toy in the shape of a black jaguar that made Jade’s eyes well up. Severus gave her a nervous smile “he’ll need to get used to seeing a jaguar walking around the house so I thought it might… help”

“I can’t believe you brought clothes and blankets…” she leant over and kissed him heavily “Thank you Sev, thank you for everything”

 

 

Jade was wearing a festive red wrap dress that made her bump very obvious as it tied at the top of it, and her hair was in a side plait over her shoulder. She was sat on one of the sofas in the common room, laughing loudly with the Weasley twins who were dressed in their traditional ‘W’ and ‘F’ jumpers from Molly and she glanced up as Ron and Harry came down the stairs, followed by Hermione who had gone to wake them up.

“Morning- Merry Christmas!”

Harry hugged her “Merry Christmas”

“Now you’re finally up I can give you your present, you might want to put your coat on though, it’s freezing outside”

Harry frowned “Why do we need to go outside”

“You’ll see”

“Is it-”

“Harry just put your coat on and we can go and look at it”

Not needing much encouragement, Harry had his coat on quickly and told the Weasley’s and Hermione that he would see them at breakfast.

 

As they walked down the rather quiet but beautifully decorated corridors Jade pulled her own long coat around herself and looked down at Harry with a fond smile “you know what I always find hilarious, you never really met your father, but your hair is exactly the same, and unable to be tamed in the exact same patches”

That made him grin “a family trait”

“Lily always looked impeccable, but she was always trying to sort your dads hair out. You look like him, but personality wise it’s all from your mum. I’m quite grateful for that though, another copy of James would be a nightmare”

He grinned “What if baby James is like my dad?”

Jade touched her bump as they walked out the castle, into the snowy grounds “God, I hope not. Right, I didn’t wrap it because, well, you’ll see, it’s just over there”

She pointed and he glanced in the direction and his jaw dropped. Even from a good few metres away, Harry could recognise a firebolt broom floating a foot off the snow covered ground.

He looked around at Jade with a shocked look, eyes wide “You got me that? You got me _Firebolt?”_

Jade laughed at his expression “Yes, I know you haven’t got a broom at the moment as the last one smashed to a billion pieces but-”

She was cut off as Harry hugged her tightly “thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

Jade laughed and kissed his hair gently “Teenage boys aren’t that hard to buy for”

He pulled back, beaming “But Jade they are so expensive, how on earth did you afford it?”

Jade looked baffled “Harry, I’ve got the money, I’ve got silly money, it’s not a big drop in the ocean, and you deserve it. Now, take it for a whirl. I’d love to have a go but it’s not exactly safe with this one”

She touched her stomach and Harry grinned, running over to the broom and calling back to her “When you’ve had the baby I’m going to put him on one immediately”

“Not if you value your life you won’t!”

 

Christmas Day was a relatively quiet day, and as Remus was visiting some family and she and Severus didn’t really want to interrupt the kids who had stayed. They went to the Christmas dinner but sat with the other teachers, rather than the students.

Jade ate so much food she thought she would burst, and Severus had a surprisingly good time talking to Minerva, Flitwick and Charity Burbage at their end of the table, his hand resting on Jade’s back gently as he got through quite a few whiskeys.

The students didn’t miss that at the other table the teachers were sat on that Professor Snape was actually laughing and smiling, and they didn’t miss the quick kiss between him and a very happy looking Jade.

Jade and Severus were both tired and went to bed quite early, with him lying behind her as the big spoon, both of them sleeping with a hand on her stomach.

 

The next day was Boxing Day and Severus was hungover and Jade didn’t feel nauseous for the first time in a while. He took the opportunity for a rather heated make out session before a hand slipped further down her body and he smirked against her lips as they kissed and he’d removed his boxers.

 

Molly and Arthur had invited Jade -and by extension Severus- to come to the Burrow on Boxing Day but he was going to see Jacob and Claire to let her go and see the Weasley’s. When she had dressed and headed for breakfast he was sprawled naked under the duvet, looking rather pleased with himself as she leant over and kissed him again before heading out for breakfast.

 

As Jade came into the Hall Harry was grinning and headed over to her quickly, Hermione and Ron just behind him.

Harry grinned “I got another one”

“Got another what?”

“Another firebolt, someone sent me one”

Jade didn’t look as happy as he’d hoped and she went a little pale “what? What was the name on it?”

He shrugged “There wasn’t one. Just wrapped in brown paper”

Jade took her wand out of her pocket “Harry, I need to see it”

“Are you going to confiscate it from me? But we could have _another_ one for the Quidditch team- one of the chasers can use it!”

“Don’t pout you look too much like your dad Harry. You’ve got the one I gave you, but you’ve got to understand that this could be dangerous”

“It’s a broom”

“Harry, have you forgotten that Sirius Black is still out on the loose?”

He tipped his head back and let out a loud frustrated sound, and Hermione glared at the two dejected looking boys “see, I told you it could be dangerous”

Jade nodded to the brunette girl “My advice for you two boys is to always listen to Hermione, she’s rarely wrong”

She beamed and the two boys glared at her as Jade flicked her wand and levitated the broom so as not to touch it, just in case it was cursed.

==

Jade felt nauseous as she apparated and was immediately swept into a tight bear hug that scared the life out of her as she hadn’t seen the person near her, thinking she had been alone in the field at the apparition point.

“Jesus Christ!”

She pulled back and saw a familiar redhead beaming down at her “Charlie!”

He grinned, standing nearly a full foot taller than her and with a smile that had melted many witches – and wizards- hearts over the years. He looked great, a slight tan – as much as a Weasley complexion was able to take- and his hair was red but a much darker sort of red-brown than the rest of the family, the locks short and curly, the same colour as the stubble on his chin.

“Charlie you scared the life out of me!”

“I literally apparated about ten seconds before you, I’m surprised you didn’t land on me”

She glanced over him, seeing the rather neat outfit he had chosen, and that it was free of the usual dragon singe marks “Well don’t you scrub up well”

Charlie grinned “You look good too J, though you are getting so fat!”

Jade glanced down at her ever expanding stomach with a fond look “Yes, feel like I actually might explode at any point though”

It looked like Bill hadn’t been too far ahead of them, entering the house in the distance.

Charlie and Jade started walking over the grass towards the Burrow and he smirked at her “Well, if Mum gets her way she’s going to feed us all until we burst”

 

Charlie was right, and Jade, Charlie and Bill had been practically force fed food through the day, and Molly hadn’t let her move a muscle, barely letting her walk from the table to the sofa as if she was heavily injured and not just pregnant.

Jade had her shoes off and feet on a footstool as Molly handed her a ridiculously massive mug of hot chocolate and pottered back into the kitchen.

Bill shook his head “You know mum is loving this, treating you like you’re one of her kids popping out her first grandchild”

“I was very close with her brothers, I think she thinks she has to look out for me”

“Well, you know as well as I do that you’re just a bloody danger to yourself. You need someone keeping an eye on you”

She laughed, sipping the hot chocolate – which she had to admit was amazing- and Charlie took a glug of his beer “So Percy and the kid from Slytherin eh? Can’t believe he’s dating a Slytherin, what a traitor”

Jade was obviously surprised, though appreciated that Charlie had an issue with his brother dating a Slytherin, and not that he was dating a boy.

She glanced at Bill who shrugged “I knew, don’t worry. Perce told both of us in the summer, and he sent me an owl a while ago saying you’d found out because you’d seen the two of them kissing in the library so we knew that you knew”

“Do your parents know?”

“Probably not. I think it’s just us at the moment. Doesn’t bother us, I just can’t believe he’s gone for a Slytherin, god, imagine the shame he’s bringing to the family”

Charlie and Jade just laughed, and she settled back into the conversation on the comfy sofa, feeling warm, sleepy, and for once not worried about the outside world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and keeping with it, love you all x


	43. Chapter 43

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I have had a whole bottle of wine before publishing so let me know if there is any editing issues.....

Jade had fallen asleep on the sofa for a while before Molly had gently woken her as a blanket had been placed over her.

She knew that after losing her brothers Gideon and Fabian that Molly liked having Jade around not just because she was a friend, but because she had been so close with the twins that she knew they would have appreciated her looking out for Jade. When she had woken up, Jade was comfortable but had to get up for a wee.

When she came back thought the kitchen – having to waddle a little- and Molly was making a cup of tea and looked at her with a warm smile “You said you’re not due until the end of the school year right?”

“Yes, two days after the kids break up in June”

Molly glanced at her stomach with a raised eyebrow “We’re only in December darling, I don’t think you’ll be making it as far as June”

“That’s what I was thinking. You’re been seeing Poppy about the baby?”

“Yes, she’s been away over the Christmas break though, we’ve got to go to St Mungo’s in a few weeks. She said I was getting quite big quite fast, but she only has a limited amount of baby checking capabilities, what with it being a school of teenagers”

“Well, it’s not uncommon with magical babies”

“Huh?”

“I didn’t get to nine months with any of mine. They were all healthy and full sized, but they were only maybe five, six, seven months, I don’t know I wasn’t exactly blessed with a ton of time back then. We did have them all rather back to back….”

“You think I’ll be having him early then?”

“Almost definitely. I’ve seen it happen on countless babies with both parents who are wizards, but you’ll need to ask at St Mungo’s to see what they say”

Jade touched her stomach fondly “We’ll have to get a move on with the House then”

“Is it nearly finished?”

“The building work is nearly done. We just need the decorating done. I know it seems silly with a house that nice, but I couldn’t bring myself to live in the exact same house I grew up in. Too many memories”

Molly nodded at that, glancing at a picture on the wall of two lanky ginger twins that weren’t Fred and George but there was a clear family resemblance. Jade couldn’t bring herself to look at the image of Fabian and Gideon, but went back in to the living room to talk to Arthur about mops.

-

 

On Boxing Day after Jade had left for the Burrow, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and the twins had been playing various games in the Common Room. None of them were too sure where Percy was, but they didn’t exactly look too hard.

Hermione knew, of course. She was probably one of the few students who actually paid enough h attention to her surroundings to actually notice that just like last year when Percy and Penelope Clearwater were disappearing together routinely, Percy was suddenly spending a lot more time with Lucas Farris than he had previously, he was also much, much happier than he had been.

It didn’t take a lot to put two and two together, and Hermione had actually seen them on the map once. Ron and Harry weren’t looking for Percy, so hadn’t spotted his labelled feet pretty much overlapping with Lucas Farris’ in the otherwise empty Prefects Bathroom after curfew.

After dinner Harry had gone back up to his room to find a letter there with just his first name on the envelope in handwriting he recognised but couldn’t quite place.

There was no one else in the room so he opened it, seeing a photograph slip out onto the duvet.

It was of a redhead girl of about 10 he reckoned, with a few freckles and a pair of eyes that Harry recognized immediately as his own. She was wearing a checked dress and smiling, waving at the person taking the photo.

Harry flipped it over and read the note on the back in black ink “Your mother, Lily the week before we started Hogwarts. We grew up together, but I thought you would want this photo. Merry Christmas”

It wasn’t signed with a name but Harry had had enough notes on his potions essays over the years to realise who had sent it. He really didn’t know how he felt about Severus Snape, a man he had hated, but who seemed to make Jade very happy, and who would be the father of his cousin once the baby came. He also hadn’t forgotten that over the summer holidays they would all be living in Potter House together. He looked at the photo and smiled, putting it in a drawer for safekeeping.

 

When she came back from the Burrow that night Jade found Severus in his rooms, clearly having had a few drinks but very happy to see her.

He’s pulled her on to his lap on the armchair, arms around her middle and bump as she sat across his lap with a smile, kissing him gently as he murmured into her neck “I’ve missed you both today”

“I like that”

“What?”

Jade kissed his cheek “You calling us ‘us’, it makes me very happy”

“Well, we’re going to be a family aren’t we”

“Molly thinks that there’s basically no chance that I am going to last until the end of the term, apparently wizarding babies are often a few months early so I might be trying to teach whilst breastfeeding in the corner. Poppy said I might be early but we’ll have to go to St Mungo’s soon to see”

He had just kissed her again and said “We’ll work it out, no matter what comes our way”

 

The post Christmas period ebbed into the New Year period and Jade had started to feel more and more restless, taking to pulling her cloak around herself and going for long walks around the grounds. Often Severus came with her, but at times he was busy or sleeping, and she would go by herself, trudging through the snow.

Often at these times she would find a student or two would come and join her, walking around in the snow and chatting to her about anything and everything.

Lucas Farris had been walking taking pictures of the castle in the snow to show to his muggle step father when he had found her and Jade had found herself at the end of a long chat about his feelings for Percy Weasley and his feelings about liking a boy, even though he was rather adamant that he wasn’t gay.

Jade had just let him vent as they walked around the grounds, and despite the fact she said very little, he seemed in good spirits afterwards.

The following day she had had a similar chat with Percy Weasley, though she got the impression that he had actively sought her out. He wasn’t confused about the situation, he was into men and at present he was very heavily into Lucas. He knew that the Slytherin wasn’t too sure about his feelings, but Percy wasn’t prepared to wait around forever.

Everyone thought Fred and George were like Molly’s brother Gideon and Fabian, mostly because of the fact they had all shared a lanky frame and ginger hair. People who had really known them however knew that whilst there had certainly been some pranks and messing around, there had been a lot of depth to both of her friends, and at times she really felt like Percy reminded her of them, especially Gideon.

Another day Hermione Granger had found her out, talking quietly about the time turner and her workload. Jade had been honest and said that Hermione was taking on too much. Jade had nearly killed herself with work in her last year and didn’t think in all honesty that the brunette girl was doing the right thing but it wasn’t really up to her.

Harry had told her about the picture of Lily, and how grateful he was. Severus hadn’t mentioned it to her, and she understood how difficult a position he found himself with Harry, the nephew of the woman he loved, who also happened to be the son of the man he hated above anyone else in the world- apart from perhaps Sirius Black. Jade appreciated that he was making an effort however, and didn’t push it.

 

On New Year Jade and Severus had a quiet dinner in their rooms, not wanting to interrupt on the students fun and likely rule breaking.

Jade had fallen asleep on the sofa not long after midnight, and Severus had tucked her and the bump up under a blanket and given her a quick kiss.

His birthday was on the 9th of January, which was the night before the students and the rest of the teachers who had gone home would return.

Severus found that he had a rather large about of ‘dad’ themed presents, especially from Jade, and he had been more than happy to spend most of the day in bed with her.

The students came back on the Sunday and then the classes started on the Monday.

At the end of her first class, which was the final years, Jade really wasn’t surprised by what – or what- she saw lurking around.

Jade glanced up as everyone left the class and she saw Oliver Wood lurking awkwardly and rolled her eyes “We haven’t cleared it yet. You’ll be the first to know when you can have the second broom, okay. The more that you pester me about it the longer it will take me to do my marking, the longer it will take me to get the time to check it. Do you follow me Wood?”

He grumbled and left the classroom, probably off to scream and smash something up she guessed.

 

It was Friday night that it happened. It was the full moon, so he thought that Remus wouldn’t be around. He didn’t know about Severus making the wolfsbane of course, that Remus just felt unwell and hadn’t transformed, and that he was in the castle that night.

A large, shaggy black dog was padding slowly through the lower floors of the castle, and it knew exactly where it was heading. Sirius felt so free when he was in his animgus form, it was something that apart from the last few months since he had escaped, he hadn’t done since he was in his early 20’s before he had been arrested.

It was a hard feeling to describe, but as the dog he could move faster, quieter, and his senses were heightened, and he just felt so _free_.

To Sirius it was simple, sneak in to the Hogwarts common room with the password he’d picked up from Alice Longbottom’s son when he had dropped it, sneak into the third year boys common room, find the bed the Weasley boy was sleeping in, and assuming that Peter was there in his rat form, Sirius would kill him.

He had looked at it from every possible angle, but if he went to Jade or Remus or anyone else to try and plead his case over what Peter had done, that Peter would just disappear and he would go back to Azkaban until the day he died.

Sirius wasn’t going to go down without a fight, and even if he killed Peter and ended up back in Azkaban, he wouldn’t even care. James and Lily’s deaths would no longer be blamed on him, and Remus and Jade would know the truth, which meant just as much to him.

 

Multiple floors below, in the almost completely silent castle in the middle of the night, Jade was walking around the room distractedly and Severus glanced up, still half asleep, hair all over the place “Are you sure there’s not something wrong with the baby?”

She just shook her head “No, he’s moving around loads, I don’t know I’m just – Something isn’t right, I feel restless”

He grumbled and swung his long legs out of the bed, standing sleepily in just his boxers and a t-shirt as Jade looked baffled, hand on her bump “What are you doing?”

Severus yawned and stretched, holding her worried face in both of his hands “you’ve been pacing the room for half an hour, you don’t even look tired, we’ll go and walk around the grounds or the castle, or whatever the hell will calm you down and mean I can get a good nights sleep”

Jade felt her heart constrict with nothing short of absolute love as he pulled on dark jeans and a long sleeved grey top with a black jacket, though his eyes were half closed.

“You are _sure_ that you and the baby are okay?”

“Yes, I just, I need to walk, I don’t know why, I just need to move”

Severus rolled his head around rather dramatically but nodded “Can we pop into the kitchens though? If I have to go for a walk at about 2 AM then I’ll need some coffee, or some sugar, or I don’t know… something”

 

They were walking out of the kitchens – Severus with a Coffee and Jade feeling too anxious and confused to eat or drink anything- when the heard the screams.

It was a floor above but they didn’t wait. It was the middle of the night so the noise from above seemed loud, if it had happened during the day they might not have even heard it.

They didn’t even look at each other, simply removing their wands and moving with remarkable speed on Jade’s part up the steps, and the noise was so loud now that they both knew that it was coming from the Gryffindor tower. Jade knew the password and they were in through the portrait hole in seconds, to what could only really be described as carnage.

Nearly every student was awake, in their pyjamas, either looking terrified or annoyed that they were awake at that time. Jade saw Percy first, moving though the crowded common room, wand in hand “Perce, what happened?”

He was wearing purple pyjamas and pointed to his younger brother “Ron says that he saw Sirius Black in his room-”

Jade didn’t wait for him to finish his sentence, both she and Severus moving to the startled younger red head quickly and Jade literally grabbed him by the arms and loudly asked “Ron, Ron tell me what you saw”

“I-I- I was asleep and I just woke up and saw that the curtains around my bed were slashed and he was standing there like a deranged nutter with a knife and-”

Severus interrupted “Did you see him leave?”

“Yes, yes he, uh, he ran out, when I screamed he ran out the common room-”

Severus and Jade looked at each other and Jade was already moving off, out of the common room as Severus looked to Percy, who he knew as the very responsible Head Boy and instructed him “Count the students, get them to the Great Hall, hold them safe until you see another teacher. Do you udnerstnad?”

The red head nodded with conviction in his gaze and Severus wondered why the Weasley siblings were so quick to dismiss Percy. This wasn’t a nerdy kid at all, he was 18 in a few weeks, and whilst he could be a bit of an overachiever in classes, there was a steady, steely look in his eyes and the way he held his wand that Severus thought would impress most people in the ministry, especially as Percy managed it with bed hair and in pyjamas better than some members of the ministry did on a good day.

 

Through the trees Sirius could see Jade, standing illuminated by the castle lights, eyes scanning over the grounds carefully.

She was dressed, not in pyjamas like he would assume, so he knew that she had actually been up already and was silently thankful he hadn’t come across her on his way to the tower.

She was wearing dark trousers and a white top with black stripes with long sleeves and as she turned slightly, Sirius felt his breath catch in his throat at the very evident baby bump there, the t-shirt tight to her stomach.

Sirius felt physically sick at the sight of Jade there, long curly hair gently blowing in the wind, eyes scanning over the grass and trees intently.

She looked like she was about to move towards where he was hidden before Sirius saw Severus Snape come out the castle, hair pushed back before he spoke quietly to Jade and she turned back to him. Sirius didn’t miss the fact they shared a quick kiss before she said something, shaking her head and walking back in to the castle, and he took the opportunity to transform back into the large dog and leave the grounds quickly.

 

Jade had come back in to the Hall but had seemed to disappear again, saying she had a theory, and no one had seen her for well over two hours. The teachers were about to start looking for her before a black jaguar they all recognised sloped back into the quiet Hall, before turning back into Jade, who looked overwhelmed.

All of the students were asleep in their sleeping bags apart from Harry, who was listening to the quiet murmurs of the teachers as they padded between the sleeping children and spoke to each other.

He heard Snape’s voice “we’ve searched the whole school, there’s no sign of him”  
Dumbledore sighed as footsteps came near them again “the real question is how did he get in?”

He heard his aunts voice “ah, I have a theory”

“Go ahead”

“Can we do this somewhere a bit more private?”

“All the children are asleep”

Jade spoke “may as well take Harry with us, seeing as it affects him and I can tell he’s awake. Harry?”

He turned over and Jade sighed, motioning him to follow as he trailed behind Snape and Dumbledore, who followed her to her offices which were nearest the hall. Remus glanced at Jade as they walked but she said nothing.

She looked awkward, shuffling on her feet. “I, Uh, I have something of a confession, well and a theory... the wards around the castle they are made so that Sirius Black can not enter, right? Well what if he slipped those wards the same way I suspect he slipped them at Azkaban?”

Albus narrowed his eyes a  little “And what would that be?”

“Uh, well, when I came forward as an animagus, it was the middle of the war, so I didn’t think much of not saying... we agreed to wait until after the war was over to come forward but, well, James was dead, so was Peter, and Sirius was in prison, there didn’t seem any point to... drag everything up again... I Uh... Sirius was he... we were all animagi, I was just the only one who came forward”

Minerva blinked “Excuse me?”

Remus looked like he wanted to throw up but Jade ignored him and carried on.

“Peter was a rat, James was a stag, Sirius was a large dog...that’s why we had the nicknames Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, I thought they were ridiculous so didn’t want one but, Uh, when Remus would transform it was so they could be around him and they were safe. James told me, and Remus was one of my best friends so they showed me how”

McGonnaghal paled “so I had four underage animagi in one year?”

“I’m sorry... but, Uh, I tested it just now, dementors aren’t able to detect me when I’m transformed, that explains how he got out of Azkaban and how he got into the castle... I’m so sorry...”

“Why did you never tell anyone?”

Remus went to talk but Jade cut him off “The plan was for them all to register after the war, as an auror it came in handy so I had to let it be known before, and then after James and peter died, Sirius was put in prison. Seeing as he didn’t escape for twelve years... no one even thought animagi could trick dementors. Sirius lived with me and my family every easter, Christmas and summer we were at school from 11 onwards...”

Snape cut in with a scathing tone and he wasn’t eve sure where the vitriol came from “well that sounds very _cosy_ ”

Jade glared at him and her eyes flashed angrily “nothing more fun than one of my friends betraying my brother and getting him killed”  
  
-

Boris Goldstein was terrified as he used the floo to get directly into the headmasters office, as the note had told him from Auror Greenlake, and Albus has opened up the network for him especially, which wasn’t exactly encouraging.

Jade was a few inches smaller than him, and had a very slender frame, but it was amazing how easily she radiates enough power and anger to make the taller, older man visibly tremble. Her face was less than an inch away from his as she spoke with threatening quietness “you lied to me”

“Wh-What?”

“After Sirius Black escaped you told me that the dementors were able to detect an animagus form, like the ones in America guarding their prisons, but that was a lie wasn’t it. You never finished the job did you?”

Boris was starting to sweat “no I-“

“Well I know you didn’t, but if you really want I’ll use legillimens on you and look at all your little secrets, but I don’t need to. You see, Sirius Black is an unregistered animagus, and that is how he escaped Azkaban and how he got past the dementors tonight. You have endanger the lives of thousands of people, and a school full of teenagers because you told me that they could detect an animagus form. I took your word and I’ve just gone down there myself- yet they didn’t detect me. So, Goldstein, you have some explaining to do”

He was shaking “I didn’t think-“

“No, you didn’t. You’re fired. I’ll speak to the Minister in the morning and he will not be happy either I’m sure” Jade stepped even closer, voice painfully quiet “now get the fuck out of here before I throw you out”

Boris got into the floo and out of the room in record time, and Jade stood there, looking pale and somehow green at the same time, staring into the flickering flames.

McGonnaghal pulled her gown a bit more around her and glared a little at Jade and darkly muttered “So, we haven’t even had time to talk about it, but you mean to tell me that four members of my house broke the law?”

“Yes, well, I thought you might be glad that we’d done so well on something to do with transfiguration-”

“I think you’ve misjudged the time for a joke miss Greenlake”

Jade nodded, still looking in the flames “Yes, probably”

“Why did you never tell anyone?”

“James wanted to when I told him I was in trouble but I wouldn’t let him. We’d all bring too much attention to Remus. Peter And Sirius didn’t even know until I was in Azkaban. James and Peter are dead and Sirius has been in prison. The American Dementors are able to detect an animagi, the ministry over here obviously missed a trick...”

“You went to prison to protect your friends then?”

Jade shrugged “Yes”

Mcgonnaghal was so angry she couldn’t form a sentence but in her head she knew Jade was right. She was somehow slightly proud that her students had been that good at transfiguration to do it underage, but still...  
She glanced at Jade, who looked exhausted, seeing in her mind the girl who was barely old enough to drink alcohol at the time who had gone to jail to protect her friends. Mcgonnaghal thought that if anything showed her that putting Jade’s name forward for the Auror position was a good choice, this was all the evidence she needed.

Jade glanced around, seeing how dark Severus’ eyes had gone and she sighed, looking exhausted “I need to alert Kingsley and Rufus so if anyone wants to shout at me or report me to the ministry then go ahead but let me do this first. Also, you’ll need to deal with the students, I’m sure hearing I’m pregnant will be more exciting than Black appearing in the school at this rate, and don’t be angry at Remus, I forbade him to tell anyone”  
  
A few hours later, Jade was looking at the marble jaguar as it strolled around the mantelpiece and glanced up at Severus, who looked both baffled and furious.

“Please, don’t be annoyed at me about this”

“I’m not”

“Well you’re glaring at me and you haven’t spoken for about 30 minutes”

“So you’re telling me that you, your brother, Pettigrew and Black all became animagi whilst you were at this school and no one knew, and then you went to prison to protect them? Jade you could have named them and you wouldn’t have gone to Azkaban at all”

“Yeah I know that. James was furious. He was going to go straight to them and explain but we couldn’t, the more people that knew, the more questions there would be. Why did we do it, and who were we protecting? I couldn’t exactly say we were doing it to go and run around with a werewolf each month could I?”

“You didn’t deserve to go to Azkaban”

“And Remus didn’t deserve his secret to come out so here we are”

Severus sighed, running a hand distractedly though his hair “I never really thought about how... that time that Black baited me into going to the whomping willow when Lupin was transformed, I didn’t really think about how James could have saved me. I assume he was transformed at the time, dragged me back and then transformed back before I saw?”

Jade just nodded.

The silence between them was overwhelming and his voice quiet “why didn’t you tell me?”

“They were all dead or in prison, what did it matter? I served my time in Azkaban and it didn’t affect my job miraculously. I made a pact with them all that we wouldn’t tell. Just because they’re dead didn’t mean I’d ignore that”  
Severus was clearly digesting this information before pulling her in for a hug and kissing her hair

“come here”

Jade opened her mouth to say something but felt her heart racing before everything went black and she fell to the ground, out cold and barely breathing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am going to a wedding tomorrow and work the first half of the week then I turn 26 on the 26th of May so I am going to be really busy coming up so I just jammed what should have been two chapters into one... ooops.  
> I don't know if anyone is still reading this but my views are stacking up but my comments and kudos aren't so who knows!


	44. Chapter 44

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a short one (for me at least)

Jade woke up from an altogether familiar nightmare, breathing heavily, drenched in sweat and eyes wide. She sat up sharply in the bed and saw immediately that she was in a private room at St Mungo’s, and that Kingsley was sat in a chair to the side, one leg crossed over the other and a rather unreadable expression on his face.

She tried to sit up and his voice was quiet “the baby is fine, don’t panic, it was just too much stress they think. It’s Sunday morning”

She vaguely remembered that it was Friday night that Sirius had broken in and she had passed out, so she had been out for a whole day. Jade visibly relaxed and shuffled up, moving her pillow so that it was behind her and she was sat up, voice croaky.

“Where’s Severus? God he was so angry about it all-“

“No, he’s been here since you came in, he’s literally left to pop back to Hogwarts, wanted to make sure I was here in case you woke up on your own. He’s not thrilled with you to be honest. Not that I am either. Do you know how much trouble you could be in? You barely got away with being an unregistered animagus yourself, let alone hiding  ** _three_**  other people doing the same thing”

Jade just grumbled and moved to get more comfortable as Kingsley sighed, running a hand over his face.

“Well we told Moody, and he didn’t seem especially surprised. Did he know?”

Jade shook her head and replied honestly “No, when we were trying to keep me out of Azkaban, Gideon did insinuate that he had an idea of who I was covering for”

“Well he never bloody told me”

“Maybe he agreed with me that it didn’t matter any more”

Kingsley scratched his chin distractedly “you’re lucky Jade, you’re very lucky that you’re not getting in trouble for this”

“I know”

The pair of them just looked at each other for a while in silence before he shook his head “you can’t spend your whole life sticking your neck out for other people, especially when one of them is a mass murderer. Pick your battles, you’re going to be a mum soon, that little one is going to need you. You have to stop doing dumb things and put yourself first for once”

Jade didn’t disagree and closed her eyes as a wave of nausea washed over her before opening her eyes again to speak to him.

“You’re right. I wasn’t protecting Sirius, I was protecting James and Peter’s memories. I didn’t want the backlash that came out when I was arrested”

“No, quite. As the two of them are dead and we can’t actually technically prove that they were unregistered animagi -technically- and Black is still on the run and there is no concrete proof, well, we’ve decided to give you a pass. Oh that reminds me, Severus told me to let him know when you were awake”

With that Kingsley pulled out his wand and silently cast a patronus, which trotted out of the room.

“Where did he go?”

Kingsley just sat back with a smug look “you’ll see. I love knowing something when you don’t. It’s a rare treat”

Jade still looked exhausted and Kingsley reached into his bag at his feet “I got you some sweets if you’re hungry?”

“Starving. Did the midwife come in?”

“Yes, you’re both fine. She’s going to come in when Severus is back probably”

\--

On the Saturday night the day before, Remus had passed on the message to Harry that he needed to meet Severus in his office at 6 am the next morning on the Sunday.

He wasn’t thrilled but he just about managed to get out of bed and down to the potions office, hair still sticking up at various angles and eyes half closed sleepily.

Severus was already waiting for him, sitting on the edge of the big desk at the front, arms crossed and his long legs out in front, crossed at the ankles as he waited.

Harry looked at him with obvious confusion, partly because of the rather secretive message he’d gotten through Remus, partially because of the fact it was 6am, but largely because Severus was wearing jeans and a dark red long sleeved t-shirt underneath a black jacket that was open and unzipped, and his hair was pushed back from his face.

Harry had to admit that he looked like a completely different person and probably several years younger.

“Professor... is everything alright? Is Jade okay?”

“Yes, she and the baby are fine. I’m going to take you to St Mungo’s to see her”

“Is that allowed?”

Severus sort of considered before half shrugging as he stood up properly “kinda. That’s why we’re leaving before you’ll be seen by too many students. Follow me down to the gates and I’ll apparate you out”

 

It was a cold and frosty morning, Severus had his hands in his pockets and glanced down at Hagrid’s hut vaguely, seeing no smoke from the chimney so realising they really were up early if even Hagrid wasn’t up yet “I have technically got permission to take you, but it still feels like we’re in the Great Escape”

Harry glanced at him “how do you know that?”

“Well I’ve seen the film, and it was a really famous story. My dad was a muggle”

“Oh”

They glanced at each other and Severus had a rather amused expression “Jade’s not awake yet, Kingsley is sending a patronus when she is, so I’ll show you the house first, if that’s alright?”

“Potter House?”

Severus hummed in agreement and carried on walking down the grounds.

 

Side apparating wasn’t fun and Harry felt a bit dizzy as Severus held his elbow and steadied him “You’re fine, take a breath”

Harry nodded as his body returned to normal, and Severus just started to walk up the gravel path and Harry saw the silvery wards parting for his potions professor and himself, and took in the size of the house as the two of them went into the large, silent building.

Harry looked around in amazement “this is where they grew up?”

“Your father, Jade, and, uh-“

He cut off and Harry glanced back towards him “Sirius Black, I know he lived with them, Jade told me”

Severus looked relived not to have been the one to spill the beans and followed Harry as he moved through the building. As you entered the main entrance the floor was black and white tiles, and in front to the right of the large entrance way was an open door that the teenager went through.

The kitchen, living and dining area was one large open plan room. To the right there was a kitchen island with beautiful black cupboards and white marble top, which matched the main kitchen area. As you entered to the left there was a very large round dining table in brushed wood with matching chairs around it, and to the right hand side of the kitchen was a stupidly large L shaped sofa in a soft grey with scatter cushions all over, a black and white rug in front of and to Harry’s surprise, there was a massive Tv on the wall.

“I thought you couldn’t get electricity in magical homes”

Severus shrugged “you cant really. It’s been an impossibly long task but Jade thought you’d be used to it from the Dursley’s”

Harry blinked In surprise and his eyes fell to the fact that the entire back wall of the open plan room was floor to ceiling windows, and he could see that they opened up, so in the summer it would be open right onto the patio. The patio followed on to a frankly insanely huge gardens by Harry’s estimation and he looked at Severus with amazement “I’m assuming this is pretty much all done in the last year, it wasn’t like this when my dad lived here?”

“Well it was nice but yes, we’ve done quite extensive work on it. I’ll show you where your room is”

They went up the carpeted stairs together and Harry saw that there was a bathroom and four bedrooms on the first floor up. Severus motioned to the one at the end “that will be yours, you still haven’t said how you want it decorated”

Harry went in and saw the enormous room painted in all white, dark wood flooring and large windows on two of the walls as it was a room in the corner of the house. There was an adjoining bathroom with black floor tiles and white wall tiles, a separate bath and a walk in shower.

Harry just looked baffled “all of this is for me?”

“Yes”

“What about the baby?”

“He’s got a room with us upstairs so you can get some sleep. Babies aren’t exactly conscientious sleepers. When he’s a bit older, he can have one of the other three bedrooms on this floor. I think there’s enough space don’t you”

Harry just stared at his potions Professor “but this.... this is enormous, this place is beautiful, and it’s where Jade grew up, and so much work has gone into it... why would you want me here?”

Severus looked genuinely baffled by that comment “because you’re her nephew Harry. You matter to Jade bad by extension you matter to us both, alright. Stop being difficult and think about what colour you want your room”

A second later a silvery patronus trotted through the corridor and Severus nodded looking relieved “That’s Kingsley’s message to say Jade’s awake. We should go and see her”

\---

She was still talking to Kingsley when the door opened and the familiar round glasses and messy black hair made her smile widely “Harry!”

He hugged her tightly and moved back so that Severus could lean down and give her a kiss on the lips, though he shook his head, voice quiet “I am really not happy with you”

“I know”

He kissed her again and moved back, letting Harry sit on the spare chair.

“Kingsley sent me a message when you were awake so I took Harry to see the house, seemed silly just to wait around whilst you slept”

“Did you like it Harry?”

“It’s amazing”

“Did you choose a colour for your room?”

“Ah, no, but I’ll have a think”

They all sat and spoke for a while until the midwife had a glance in with slight surprise at the ‘boy who lived’ Harry Potter, her former Potions Professor, one of the heads of the Auror department, and the famous Auror Jade Greenlake looking back at her.

“Oh sorry, I didn’t know you had company…”

Kingsley stood up “Ah, we’ll leave you to have a chat. I can request floo access from my office to Hogwarts, Dumbledore will open it up for us, and I’m sure Harry will like to look around the Auror Department?”

Harry nodded enthusiastically, eyes lighting up and Jade realised it was the magical equivalent to him of having a chance to look around MI6 or something similar.

“Thank you Kings”

Severus just nodded and Harry hugged his aunt before happily following Kingsley out of the room, already asking questions about being an Auror as the door closed.

The midwife glanced at the paperwork “you said you were expecting to give birth around a week after Hogwarts school year finishes?”

Jade nodded and the midwife pulled an amused expression “Uh, not a chance, unless Hogwarts is finishing several months earlier than when I was there. You’re going to have this baby in a few months, I’d be quite amazed if you made it past April to be honest. Your birthday is the end of March right? I’d think the little one will be here around then to be honest. You will want to speak to Professor Sprout about helping out as you’re never going to be able to teach all day and have a newborn at the same time. I mean you have enough time to sort it out, but I can’t give you an exact date, magical babies sort of come whenever they want really”

Severus nodded, thinking “But is the baby otherwise healthy?”

“Oh yes, he’s absolutely fine, very healthy little bruiser you’ve got there. You’re both very strong wizards, and actually with your status as an animagus I’d say the little one is very well protected”

A buzzer went off in the hallway and the midwife sighed “Sorry I’ll have to go and sort that out, I’ll see you before you go but you are free to go whenever you want”

She left and the two of them were left alone in the room.

Severus looked at Jade, who was clearly trying to take in what had been said “How are you feeling? Thankfully the house is nearly finished, you’ll be able to go back with him until term-”

She cut him off “What are you on about? If he comes early then I’ll stay at Hogwarts, I don’t want you to miss out on the first few months of your sons life”

He leant over, kissing her gently and stroking her hair lightly “you know I never had any siblings, I can’t even pretend to relate to the bond between you and James, and what you did to protect him. I have been baffled and upset about you keeping Sirius and Peter’s animagus secret all these years but whilst you were sleeping I really had a good think about it. I know it’s impossible because he’s a muggle, but I was thinking what would I do in the same position if it was Jacob? There is no question that I’d keep the secret. Sirius was like a brother to you growing up, and Peter is dead, and James was your twin brother… you were in an impossible situation. You are very lucky that the ministry have let you off, very, very bloody lucky. I’m not going to hold it against you because I can’t begin to understand a sibling relationship”

Jade looked relived “thank you, I haven’t got the energy to argue with you at the moment”

“No, me neither, it’s been quite a long weekend. There’s still no sign of Black, by the way”

“I don’t even want to talk about Sirius right now, I’m still trying to digest the fact we might be having a baby several months before we had planned”

Severus took her hand and kissed it gently “We’ll manage, we always find a way don’t we. We can head back to the castle whenever you’re ready”

Jade smiled back at him “Okay, but as we’re at St Mungo’s, can we visit Frank and Alice?”

“Of course, I’ll get your wand and coat”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm 26 on the 26th of May so there might be a bit of a wait for the next chapter, however I've sort of sketched out the details from this one right up until the summer holidays between 3rd and 4th year, and especially the baby coming and Sirius breaking in again and all those secrets coming out!
> 
> You're all amazing and thanks for reading and staying with me!


	45. Chapter 45

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why the hell did this take me so long to write...?
> 
> So I definitely wrote the scene with Jade and Remus having tea and the discussion for a chapter ages ago and as it turns out it didn't make it in so here it is now!

Jade was sat opposite Dumbledore in his office, her expression carefully blank, and it was so clear that she had been trained by Alastor Moody, they both had identical expressionless faces when being asked anything difficult.

“So, you and three other students decided to break the law to help out your friend?”

It wasn’t really a question and Jade didn’t answer, eyes flickering to the phoenix as it strutted around on its little podium.

Albus sighed, fingers steepling together “do you understand what you did?”

“Yep. Very much so. Don’t you think Severus has already had a go at me for this? You’re just annoyed I kept it a secret, think how Sev feels, he despises James, Peter and Sirius, so he’s doubly furious about it. I mean, I think he was more worried about the baby but still”

Albus tapped the table distractedly “You were impossibly lucky that the Ministry haven’t done anything further. When Sirius is found, they intend to prosecute him further”

Jade snorted derisively “What, they’re going to add to his life sentence? He’s going to be there until he dies, adding charges for being an animagus and escaping isn’t going to do much is it”

Albus nodded thoughtfully “You are correct, but I rather think they mean to give him the Dementors Kiss”

Jade stilled at that, eyes widening “But… I suppose if he can break out and break in here, it is the safest option for us all”

“It must be hard, he was like a brother to you”

Jade nodded sadly “Yes, but that’s in the past now. Albus, I really am sorry, about everything, I should have told you that it wasn’t just me who was an animagus”

\--//

 

After talking to Albus for a while, Jade went down to Remus’ offices, as Albus had told her that Harry was having a patronus lesson with Moony and she wanted to see him and let him know she was back at the castle.

In the otherwise empty classroom, Harry was grabbing his things and glanced up to see Jade at the doorway with a slight smile on her face “I hope Professor Lupin hasn’t been going too easy on you?”

He laughed, pulling his jumper on “I’m definitely getting better”

Remus nodded “Agreed, he’s improving very well”

Jade looked a little relieved “Glad to hear it, now you should get to dinner Harry”

As he left the classroom Harry grinned at his aunt and quickly said “Glad to see you back” before hurrying down to dinner.

Remus glanced at Jade with a slightly wary look “Well, we’ve both still got our jobs, so thanks for talking them around”

“No, they weren’t going to fire you. I was lucky not to get in trouble with the Ministry more than the school, but I think the public backlash when they sent me to Azkaban was bad enough, there isn’t really any legal recourse for ‘keeping a secret’. I’ve just had Albus have a go at me but it’s all okay. Oh, yeah, I should tell you that the midwife thinks I’ll be having this baby way, way earlier than expected, like around my birthday”

“Oh shit”

“Well we’ll see. You were using a boggart, god that’s a bit sad that Harry’s boggart is a dementor considering everything he’s gone through”

Remus glanced at her “What is your boggart?”

Jade considered for a few seconds and shrugged “I don’t know to be honest Moony, shall we give it a go?”

“Up to you”

Jade nodded and Moony closed the office door, and a few seconds later the cupboard door opened and from the darkness, a figure appeared.

He was tall and lanky, with wavy dark hair, angular jaw and cheekbones, intense green eyes and he looked barely in his 20’s. Remus thought maybe he recognised him but he couldn’t place the face, looking over the figure. The skin was deathly white and looked even more pale as he was wearing black trousers and a black shirt with the top button open and the sleeves rolled back, a dark mark visible on the forearm, and the gold twisting bruise on his wrists from a freshly performed Unbreakable Vow.

His voice seemed to echo around the room “It wasn’t worth it, Jade. It didn’t work. I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t finish it off and now I’m gone, and it was all for nothing. Why didn’t you-”

Jade muttered the spell to get rid of the boggart and it whooshed back into the cupboard.

The room was silent and Remus looked slowly to Jade “Was that… was that Regulus? Regulus Black?”

She nodded slowly “I can’t talk about it” she muttered a spell over her forearm and the gold twist identical to that of the boggart and it disappeared again. Remus just looked baffled “You did an _unbreakable vow_ with _Regulus Black_? Jade-”

“Moony, don’t. It was in the middle of the war, and it saved… I can’t say or it will kill me. I don’t want to talk about it, and even if I could, it’s not… it was the right decision for the time, I need you to know that. Regulus wasn’t the person we thought he was, he was desperate to save lives. I could have captured or killed him easily. What we did wasn’t easy, but it was right, I didn’t do something like that without thinking it through. There’s no point asking me anything, I can’t tell you anything”

Remus bit his bottom lip, looking worried “Regulus is dead?”

“Yes”

“If he’s dead doesn’t the unbreakable vow-”

“Nope. Still in place. The, uh, terms, of what we agreed haven’t been met. When they are fulfilled then I can tell you the whole lot. Now, can I have a cup of tea? The baby is driving me crazy”

Remus didn’t look thrilled but nodded, opening up the doors adjoining his office into his rooms and she followed him in.

\--//--

Sat on the sofa in his rooms, Jade glanced at Remus as he shuffled around and was half turned away from her as he made the cups of tea.

“Sirius has times both breaks-ins around the full moon. He doesn’t know about the wolfsbane so assumes you will be weak and recovering or not in the castle at least”

“He’s more scared of you than me”

“Yes, but it’s different between you and Sirius, and me and Sirius”

Remus was spooning sugar into his own tea distractedly “Uhuh, and why is that, because you’re pregnant?”

“Because you were in love with him”

Jade didn’t miss the loud clink of the sugar spoon practically smashing against the side of the tea cup as Remus flinched but he said nothing and she carried on.

“I mean, we talked about this before, and you never really confirmed or denied it, and to be honest, I don’t give a shit. We didn’t know what he was or what he was planning, and I loved him too, in a different way of course. We both put our faith in the wrong person. You never really got any closure though did you, that’s why you’ve hardly dated anyone for the last decade, that’s why you’ve hidden behind your condition to stop you having to actually date anyone for any length of time. You can just tell me Moony, or you can just tell me to piss off and mind my own business, I’m just saying I get it. You were in love with Padfoot and it eats you up to this day doesn’t it”

Remus’ shoulder sagged a little and Jade rubbed her stomach gently, the baby moving around a lot more than usual and making her uncomfortable.

“Did you two ever…?”

Remus turned around, a cup of tea in each hand and a slightly pale pallor to his face and put them both down on the little coffee table as he collapsed down into the armchair opposite her.

“Once. Only once”

Jade didn’t look surprised as he ran a hand over his face and didn’t quite meet her eyes “We were 18, maybe 19. It was after a fight with some Death Eaters with the Order, we had a few beers and, well, adrenaline or something, and we… well…. You can fill in the gaps”

Jade nodded and sipped at her tea as Remus ran a hand through his hair “Do you hate me for that?”

Jade looked genuinely baffled “don’t be an idiot, of course I don’t. We didn’t know what he was really like at the time did we”

“I meant more because…”

Jade shook her head “I’m not going to berate you for unfortunate sexual experiences, I mean I slept with Ludo Bagman for gods sake”

Remus just laughed lightly at that, he already knew about Ludo so didn’t need to ask what the hell she had been thinking by going anywhere near him, and he just sighed “You already knew though, didn’t you?”

“No, but I have always known you liked Sirius and I thought something must have happened for you to be so… hung up on him. Anyway, it’s your business, not mine, I appreciate you finally telling me. Anyway, I don’t want to talk about Sirius anymore… The house is nearly done by the way, you’ll love it”

“Your parents would be thrilled to have their two grandchildren being raised in the family house, especially since you’ll be there with Severus. Let’s be honest your dad was kind of a mad scientist, he’d be pretty happy to have a potions master in there”

Jade smiled at that “I hadn’t thought about it like that”

“And your parents were fascinated by Muggles, and Harry said you’ve managed to get a television to work in the house?”

“That was Severus to be honest, I don’t even really understand how one works. Can’t wait to get Arthur Weasley around, he’ll be fascinated. I think James would think it was hilarious that I’m having a baby and raising it in the House. He always said I’d end up a bit more domestic than I’d imagined”

Remus laughed loudly at that “You? Domestic? Jesus Christ Jade, you’ll definitely never be domestic. You’ll still be off kicking everyone’s arses with a toddler at home, don’t worry about that”

Jade just smiled, rubbing her stomach as the baby moved and kicked painfully.

\--//--

 

The weeks moved on, and Jade got steadily more heavily pregnant, they were telling the contractors how they wanted the painting and what colours the tiles were going to be. The building work was now all done, and the gardens were being sorted by Easter.

Easter itself was early this year, and both Percy Weasley and Lucas Farris turned 18 just before the Easter break, and both of them worked incredibly hard at their work experiences in the Ministry that Jade had sorted. She had heard back from Kingsley and from Barty Crouch Sr that they had both done very well and she was pleased.

Jade, Severus, Harry, Ron and Hermione all stayed at the castle and Jade was glad the kids had wanted to stay as there had still been no word from Sirius and no one knew what his next plan was. The Dementors would be able to stop an animgus but not for a while.

As usual Jade didn’t want to celebrate her birthday, as it hurt her too much to think about James, but it was the first day that the students came back after Easter, so she was so busy that she didn’t really have enough time to even think about it.

Jade had found herself struggling more and more as the week went on, constantly exhausted and her back was hurting more and more.

Her only real help was when she was asleep, lying on her side with a bunch of extra pillows to get comfortable.

It was as she was waking up on a Friday morning that she felt Severus lying close behind her, his body flush against her back and arm wrapped around her gently.

Severus sleepily kissed her neck and on the sensitive spot behind her ear that made Jade groan slightly between clenched teeth and she arched her back and could feel his erection very clearly poking against her body, and his breathing hitched and got faster against her ear.

His hands were roaming over her body and they were both feeling hot and electric with excitement and his hand dipped into her pyjama shorts and after she was groaning his name and breathing heavily he smirked against her neck and managed to murmur with barely controlled restraint “Is this okay? Are you sure?”

Jade looked over her shoulder at him “I’m pregnant not ill, get on with it”

He laughed and was clearly incredibly relieved that she still wanted to have sex.

Severus was acutely aware of how pregnant Jade now was, and so lying flush against each other on their sides on the bed was the easiest way to actually have sex without a lot of manoeuvring.

A while later they were both sweaty, flushed messes, sprawled under the sheets and catching their breath.

Jade turned to him with a smirk “Not a bad way to start the day”

Severus laughed “More than happy to help”

Jade sat up, pulling on her white dressing gown and padding around the room barefoot “Can we just get breakfast in the room? I can’t be bothered to get changed and down there before classes”

Severus nodded with a yawn “Good call. How are you feeling?”

Jade considered, moving from one foot to the other to try and get comfortable “Yeah, fine, just hungry”

“Sounds like my baby”

Jade laughed but in the back of her mind did wonder if the back pain meant anything more, but pushed it to the back of her mind as Severus asked what she wanted the house elves to bring down for them to eat.

Over breakfast Severus glanced up at her “So, I confiscated your nephew with a piece of parchment last week”

“Parchment isn’t against the rules”

“It had writing coming up, from Moony, Prongs, Wormtail and Padfoot”

“Ah”

Jade didn’t say anything, waiting with toast in her hand for him to say something “I assume it was just made to insult me or other people. Remus took it”

Jade nodded slowly, trying not to laugh as she ate her toast “Oh, that’s good. They were always making stupid things”

“Hmm”

\--//

Classes that Friday were particularly long for Jade, and she spent the entire morning pacing he classroom, her back absolutely killing her and she felt incredibly uncomfortable. Thankfully her classes were largely first and final years so they were quite self sufficient. The first years were loud and amazed by the plants they were cutting up, and the final years were fairly quiet and intently studying in groups and asking her the odd question or two.

Jade only had one class after lunch, which was the final year students, and then she had nothing for the final two classes.

At the end of the seventh year class she was starting to feel really quite rubbish, but she noticed that Lucas Farris and Percy Weasley had stayed behind to speak to her about their Ministry work experience, and it was a nice, casual conversation.

After a while talking to them, Lucas asked her a question but heard nothing in response.

Jade was silent and both boys looked at her, waiting for her to chime in but she was just holding on to the table and staring at the floor, one hand tightly white knuckled clenched and the other tightly holding her large belly.

“Professor? Everything alright? You look really spaced out”

Jade took a shaky breath and glanced up at them, letting out a half laugh “Uh yes, well no. I need to get back to the castle, and I need you both to get Professor Snape for me, fairly urgently”

Percy looked confused “What’s wrong?”

Lucas just rolled his eyes “She’s having the baby you idiot. Your mums had enough I would have thought you’d recognise the signs” He looked back to his Herbology teacher “can you walk back to the castle do you think?”

She nodded, the contraction waring off and feeling uncomfortable but okay again “Yeah, yeah I think so, it’s passed, I need to get my things together”

Lucas glanced at Percy “Seriously, why did your parents have so many kids, was there not a tv in the house? Not much else to do but each other”

Jade snorted with laughter as she gathered her things, and Percy rolled his eyes “We didn’t have a bloody television, muggle stuff doesn’t work at the house, no matter how hard Dad tries”

Lucas looked baffled “How boring must your house be without television!”

“You sound like you’d probably get on well with my dad, you’d probably be in love with him”

Lucas picked up the last of the books Jade was reaching for to stop her straining and spoke before really thinking “Nah, I can only be in love with one of you at a time”

Both Jade and Percy stilled and – conveniently- Jade felt another contraction and dropped the text book she was holding and Lucas picked it up quickly, cheeks bright red and looked deeply uncomfortable “Uh, we should get you to the castle professor”

\--//

Percy and Lucas didn’t speak as they made their way down to the dungeons, neither wanting to mention that Lucas had declared his love for Percy, that they had just walked their favourite teacher up to the castle whilst she was in labour, or in a much less worrying way, that they were both currently missing a Charms lesson.

Lucas knocked on the door and heard Snape’s familiar deep voice “Come in”

There was a class full of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff first years looking bewildered at the Head Boy and a Prefect awkwardly coming into the room.

Severus frowned “What is it?”

Percy pulled a face “Professor, there’s a bit of an issue”

“Is it urgent, I am in the middle of a class”

“uh…”

Percy looked at Lucas, unsure if he should say it in front of the students and the Slytherin prefect spoke instead “Yes, Professor, it’s urgent, **_very_** , very urgent” he glanced at the writing on the board and the potions the students were halfway through “they’re making boil potions? Perce and I can supervise them, they’re only first years, and we’re both taking potions this year”

Severus nodded but looked confused, moving closer to Lucas, his voice barely above a mutter so the first years couldn’t hear “what’s happened?”

He replied equally quietly “Professor Greenlake, she’s in her rooms, she’s having the baby”

Severus looked awash with panic for a second before glancing around at the class with his usual cold expression “I have to go, listen to Weasley and Farris, they’re in charge”

Lucas smirked at Percy “I’m better at Potions, so _I’m_ in charge”

Severus really didn’t have the time for this stupid conversation and made a quick exit from the classroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and sticking with me, you're all amazing. Hope you are all still liking this!


	46. Chapter 46

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, here comes the baby.....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a lot less horrific than the 30 hour labour I had with an emergency C section at the end and a week in hospital....

Severus burst into their rooms and saw Jade and Poppy look at him in confusion and amusement.

He was panting, having run from the dungeons, and looked wild and panicked, worried he’d have missed everything.

Poppy was sat in an armchair with a cup of tea, and Jade was standing beside the sofa, holding onto it for support but a flash of a smile on her face at his expression.

“Is he okay? Did I miss it?”

Poppy laughed “no, Severus, the baby is on his way but he’s not here yet!”

He looked at Jade, seeing that she was wearing a long t-shirt dress that came halfway down her thighs, her hair in a messy bun and half of it falling out, and a flushed look on her face.

“Are you okay?”

Jade was still holding the back of the sofa tightly and nodded “yes, well, between contractions I’m fine”

Severus glanced at Poppy “you’re sure they’re both okay?”

“Yes, Severus, I’m quite certain. It’s too late to go via floo or apparate to St Mungo’s so you’ll be having him here. Jade is still a little way off, so we’ve agreed I’ll come back-“

Severus looked baffled “what do you mean? You’re going to leave her when-“

Jade interrupted with a guttural groan, clenching the sofa as hard as she could, and whilst she wasn’t loud, it was clear that she was experiencing a bad wave of pain that passed before she looked at him, pupils wide and face sweaty “this could be hours and hours yet Sev, there’s nothing Poppy can do, we can call her when I think I need to push, but I might be hours still”

He looked baffled and Jade just reached out for his hand and he moved over the room to her and she managed to calm him “Poppy can’t do anything for now, I just need you for now”

Poppy smiled at him “Severus, you’ve had your orders, call me down when she’s further along, I’ll make sure all your classes are covered”

Severus blinked “What am I supposed to do?”

“Just be there, this is the last moments of calm before you’re going to be a father”

Judging by the noises of pain coming from Jade, Severus didn’t exactly think this counted as ‘calm’.  
  


After Poppy had left, Jade had started to pace the room, clearly restless and trying to walk around through the pain as another contraction caused her to stop and bend over, groaning in pain.

Severus just sort of stood in the corner, looking concerned and Jade turned to him slightly angrily “Can you just _do_ something please, I can’t have you just fucking staring or I’ll throw you out and do it myself”

Something seemed to snap in Severus and he shook his head and moved around the room to her, hugging Jade tightly “Sorry, sorry, it’s just hard to see you in pain”

He kissed her forehead and Jade nodded shakily “Yes I know but this is still early, I’ve still got to push and that is going to much worse. I need you, Sev, I **_need_** you”

He held her face and kissed her as she kept moving from one foot to the other.

“Yes, I’m here, I’m not going anywhere, I’m never going”

Jade was breathing heavily and he could tell that another contraction was building as she asked “I’m worried”

“You can do this Jade”

\--//--

 

It felt like days had passed to Severus but it had been around four hours, not that that was much better.  Jade was getting quieter and quieter, which Severus didn’t really know how to take.  
Usually getting her to be quiet was a hard enough task, so this silent huffing around the room was worrying him more.

He’s asked her multiple times if they needed to call Poppy down, but she’d declined, saying she didn’t feel close yet. To Severus it seemed like she desperately needed medical intervention but Jade was firmly convinced that she was fine.

Considering the fact she had been tortured with dark magic and survived, injured and tortured with the cruciatus curse more than once or twice and yet was finding the labour painful, he was getting worried.

Jade just kept walking and moving around the room, and made it clear that she didn’t want anyone to come in and see them, she just wanted the two of them until the needed Poppy there.

Severus was wondering distractedly if Jade had actually considered the fact they had pretty much nothing at the castle for the baby as it was all at the House but he didn’t think it was really the time to mention it, seeing as they hadn’t been expecting the baby for a few more weeks at the very earliest.

By now Jade was lying on her side on the bed on top of the pale blue bedspread and Severus was sat on a chair beside her, holding her hand tightly.

Severus really wasn’t sure which part of his panicking mind thought it was a good time to speak but he just blurted out “I want to get married”

Jade managed to look up through a bout of pain, her hair stuck to the sides of her sweaty face, and laughed shakily “I don’t think this is really the time Sev”

“I know, I just, I dunno I do, and I’ve always told you I don’t want to because of my parents having a terrible marriage and you parents having such a perfect one, but I do, I honestly do”

Jade had another contraction and made a low moaning sound throughout before it eased off and she managed to talk “I love you Sev, I love you so much, but I can’t have this chat now. I’m in so much pain I can’t think straight, can we do this – shit- I think I need Poppy”

Severus blinked “you think you need to push?”

“I’m going to have this baby can you just bloody get Poppy”

Thankfully they didn’t have to leave the room to get Poppy, Severus just cast a patronus message that disappeared out the room as Jade felt another contraction wash over her and she had one hand practically crushing Severus’ hand and the other twisted in the bed sheets and he was glad that there was several silencing charms around the rooms as she was shouting now.

 

Poppy was there within five minutes, looking incredibly flustered and magically locking the door behind her and surveying the scene in the bedroom.

Severus looked more pale and unwell than she had ever seen, wearing jeans and a light grey t-shirt, hair pushed back and looking impossibly stressed, holding Jade’s hand, eyes wide. Jade however was breathing heavily, the hair that had fallen out of the bun was plastered against the sides of her face which was drenched in sweat, the same as the rest of her body was.

She was sat slightly up on the large double bed, legs stretched out and skin flushed, eyes tired but determined. Poppy was glad that she still looked like there was some fight in her, she knew that the hardest part for women was actually the pushing, and for some that was a long process, and for some it was only a short while, but regardless, it would be more difficult if she had already given up.

“Right, Severus, I need you to keep a hold of Jade’s hand, this is the hard part, now Jade let me check how far along you are okay?”

She managed a half nod before another, much worse contraction wracked through her body and Poppy folded up the long Tshirt-dress Jade was wearing and looked up at the two of them with a slightly surprised expression “Well, you’re fully dilated Jade, I can actually see the baby’s head, you need to start pushing on the next contraction Jade, and then baby is going to be here very soon, okay?”

The next five or so minutes passed in a complete blur for Severus of painful yells from Jade, encouraging words from Poppy, and the one or two encouraging words he’d been able to manage himself.

All too quickly, Poppy glanced up “one more push Jade, you’re doing amazingly, I’m so proud of you”

Severus kissed her forehead as Jade groaned and yelled in pain and exertion and then suddenly it seemed to be all over.

Jade could tell the second the baby was out because the pain just tapered off and a second later there was a high, loud crying that made Severus and her stop completely in their tracks.

“Is he- is he okay?”

Poppy looked up with a wide smile “he’s perfect. Severus did you want to cut the cord?”

He nodded like someone who wasn’t sure how to move their head and moved around to the end of the bed where Poppy was wrapping the crying baby in a warm blanket after having quickly wiped him with a towel.

Severus cut the umbilical cord at Poppy’s direction, not really even taking in his son until he was passed up and put on Jade’s chest.

The crying calmed a little and he got the first look at the two most important things in his life.

Jade was sat up in the bed with the blanket over her, looking sweaty and exhausted and as she looked down at her son in her arms, he didn’t think he’d ever seen her look more beautiful.

The baby was a good size considering he was early, tiny little arms and hands peeking out of the blanket. He had some dark hair on his head, what Severus though was a perfect little nose and mouth, and as the eyes opened he saw that they were a very dark blue, a mix of their own colours.

The baby murmured with a content sound as Jade held him and Severus leant down to kiss his sons head and then Jade, voice quiet “I love you, I love you so much, well done, well done”

She looked content, smiling up at him and holding their son “I love you too, both of you”

Poppy moved around the bed and looked down at the family with a smile “You’re doing well, he’s healthy, well done to you both. He’ll need a feed soon and I’ll help you with that, and you’ll need to settle in with a crib and everything but the Elves can help with that. I can register the birth and settle you and leave the three of you together, I just need to know what this little cuties name is.

Severus answered  “James Noah Greenlake-Snape”

Jade shook her head sleepily “no”

Poppy glanced up “no to which bit?”

“The surnames, just Snape. James, Noah, Snape”  
  
\--//--

Poppy had shown Jade how to feed the baby and thankfully he was greedy enough that there wasn’t any problems, so she left them to it, arranging to register the birth and have the elves sort some baby things for them.

Jade was find but not in any state to travel by floo or apparition for a few days so they were going to stay in their rooms for a while. Since their relationship had come out they had given up Severus’ rooms and what had belonged to Jade had been extended to accommodate the two of them and the baby, so thankfully they had enough room.

Jade had asked Poppy to tell Harry and the teachers that they had had the baby, but that they would let them visit in a few hours, when they had had some time just the three of them.

 

Registering the birth that night meant that in the morning, it was pretty much front page news, and in a cold, damp cave he was living in, Sirius black was reading a stolen Daily Prophet.  
  
**_Jade Greenlake gives birth to first child born on Hogwarts grounds in 185 years_**

_Auror Jade Greenlake who is currently teaching Herbology at Hogwarts and Professor Severus Snape had their son yesterday afternoon on Hogwarts grounds. As apparition and use of the floo network is strongly discouraged when in labour, it can be assumed that Auror Greenlake was already in labour and unable to travel to St Mungo’s._

_The birth was registered late last night, and the child was named James Noah Snape, named after Auror Greenlake’s twin brother, who was the father of Harry Potter. No children have been born on the castle grounds since…_

 

Giving up on the article, Sirius glanced at the newspaper and didn’t even try to hide the tears slipping down his face.

So, she’d had the baby, and he was no closer to proving anything. He didn’t know his godson, that was bad enough, but now there was a second Potter child out there who would think he was some type of murderous monster.

Sirius swallowed, wiping the tears from his face and finding a plan starting to form in his head.  
Peter Pettigrew has caused the deaths of not only the muggles, but also James and Lily. And now their son, sister and nephew were all in the castle, vulnerable and without any idea that the real enemy was in there with them.

He wasn’t going to let anything happen to them, it wasn’t even just them that had been hurt by Peter however. When Sirius thought about it, Wormtail must have been passing information to the Death Eaters for a while, and he wondered if that was how they had found and tortured the Longbottom’s and also Jade.

He didn’t like Severus Snape, far from it, but he was the father of Jade’s baby, and that meant it was yet another person Sirius was adding to his list he wanted to keep safe. Frankly everyone was in danger with Peter running around unchecked, but he’d been close with the Longbottom’s in the order and so worried about Neville, then obviously now he had somehow added bloody Severus Snape to the list, Moony, Jade, Harry and now the baby.

He needed some time to refine the plan, but this time Sirius wasn’t going to let any harm come to the people he cared about, whether they believed him or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obviously Harry and Remus need to visit baby James, that should be up in the next few days.  
> You are all amazing and thanks for reading.


	47. Chapter 47

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why I just love the idea of Jacob not giving a shit about the magical world.

It was only a few hours after baby James had been born that Severus had called for Remus. That night they only wanted two people to visit, and that was Harry and Remus. Harry was at quidditch practice so Severus had asked the elves to call for Remus after a cot had been put in their room, along with various baby supplies that none of them were even too sure where they had got them from as no children were generally at the castle.

Severus had changed and met a rather frazzled looking Remus who came down the pretty much empty corridors. It was just before dinner so most of the students were at various clubs or their common rooms so no one saw the interaction between them, Remus in his teaching robes, and Severus in black trousers and a red long sleeved t-shirt. Remus felt like Severus looked like a completely different person when he wasn’t dressed in the long black robes, but didn’t think it was the time to bring it up.

Severus looked exhausted and Remus was obviously worried “is she okay?”

“They’re **both** okay”

“She’s had the baby?”

He nodded slowly, running a hand though his dark hair “Yes, he’s, well he’s perfect, and I don’t have to tell you that she’s amazing”

“You were there for the birth?”

He nodded “how any human being does that I don’t know. Well, you know Jade, it takes a lot to throw her. She wants you to come in, if you’re ready?”

“How is she?”

Severus shrugged “As well as she can be for someone who just pushed a human being out of them a few hours ago”

“It’s still quite early though, is he okay?”

Severus couldn’t hide his grin “Yes, he’s perfect, come on, follow me”

Severus had let Remus in to their rooms but had pointed the defence against the dark arts teacher to the bedroom where Jade and the baby were, whilst he muttered something about leaving them to it and went into the living room area.

After knocking gently Remus went in, seeing Jade sat up on the bed on top of the covers, wearing black leggings and a matching t-shirt, only the two low bedside lights were on and the room was warm and cosy as the fire was gently flickering.

The room was very tidy considering Jade had been giving birth for most of the day in there, but magic was always helpful for that sort of thing. Remus moved in quietly, seeing the beautiful little white swinging bassinette that was next to the bed, and he was mesmerised by the little figure sleeping in there.

Remus looked amazed and pretty much close to tears, voice quiet “you had a baby!”

Jade had moved to the side of the bed as they both looked at the baby with smiles on their faces, he was wearing a white and blue striped babygrow with long sleeves and a matching little hat.

Baby James was asleep, arms resting above his head and face to one side, eyes closed and looking peaceful.

Remus just stared, eyes wide “J, look at his tiny fingernails, you’ve made a **baby** , oh my **_god_**!”

“I know, it’s crazy Moony. I’ve just fed him so he will probably sleep for a while. Do you want a cuddle?”

Remus nodded, unable to say any words and Jade lifted the snoozing baby into Remus’ arms and he snuggled into the Marauders warm chest.

“Jade, oh my god, I can’t believe you did this, congratulations”

“I’m so glad you’re here for this Moony, you’re one of my oldest friends and I don’t know how I’d do this without you here”

He just smiled, looking down at baby James with a fond expression “Wouldn’t miss it for the world”

Jade glanced at Remus who was still holding her sleeping son “So Severus told me that he caught Harry with the map a while ago and that you took it. He didn’t ask too many questions but I think he was a bit suspicious”

He smirked “Well, he probably saw the nicknames, we used them too much in school to really get away with it now. I think it literally had the nicknames all over it, we should have been more discrete”

“I don’t think any of you really even know what ‘discrete’ even meant”

“That’s true. I’ve got the map for now, I’ll return it to Harry at some point, he can have some fun, it’s what James would have wanted”

\--//--

Harry had trudged up from quidditch practice to find McGonnaghal stood at the front doorway and as he had heard that Jade and Severus hadn’t been in their last few lessons and so panicked.

“Professor, is everything alright?”

She just smiled “Yes, I thought you might want some good news”

Harry blinked “No, she’s had the baby?!”

His head of house just smiled, and started to walk down to their rooms with the third year following her excitedly. Severus was standing in the doorway and was by now looking exhausted but managed a gentle smile “You’ve chosen a good time, he’s awake”

Harry grinned and McGonnaghal nodded “Go on Potter, go meet your cousin”

She left and Severus showed Harry in to their rooms, closing the doors behind them.

It was getting later now and Jade looked frankly exhausted, but she was holding James to her chest with his head on her shoulder and walking around the room and Harry just froze “You seriously had the baby already?”

Severus frowned “Well it isn’t one we stole Potter”

Jade moved over to Harry and moved James into her arms so that he could see the baby who was awake and grumbling a little as he squirmed around.

“Harry, this is baby James, he’s your cousin. Do you want a hold?”

Harry nodded, wide eyed and unable to even say anything and he sat down in an armchair as Jade gently put James in his arms. “Oh my gosh… he’s adorable”

Jade smiled, looking at her nephew holding her son as the man she loved pressed a kiss to the side of her head, and she felt truly, truly happy.

\--//--

The next morning the article about the birth came out in the Prophet and Jade and Severus were inundated with cards, letters and parcels but they hadn’t got around to opening any of them. Jade wanted to breastfeed until she and baby James really got the hang of it before she could use some formula, so they had both had a rather broken sleep, though it wasn’t exactly a surprise to either of the teachers that a new-born wasn’t sleeping through the night.

It was the weekend but Albus had come to see them in the morning, smiling fondly down at the small baby and explaining that Professor Sprout was coming on the Monday to cover Jade’s classes for the foreseeable future, and that Slughorn had agreed to cover the potions classes for the next few weeks as well.

They hadn’t expected for Severus to be given time off as well so it was a nice surprise as Albus said he had sorted it, and it was his present. Whilst he had been there they had asked if it was okay for some of their friends to visit whilst Jade and the baby were still unable to go by apparition or floo and he had agreed, though Jade got the impression that he had possibly seen this coming, as he had added ‘your muggle friend is okay to come too’ despite the fact they hadn’t really specifically asked about Jacob.

 

Around midday, Severus was wearing dark jeans with a light blue shirt that was open on the top few buttons and a black blazer style jacket. His hair was pushed back and it took most of the students a double take to realise who it was, a few of them braving the chilly day as he walked down the grounds towards the gates, hands in his pockets.

Claire, Jacob and their toddler Thomas were standing on the other side of the gates waiting for him. Jacob was in a black polo top and grey suit style trousers, Claire in a royal blue dress to her knees, and Thomas was wearing a yellow top with grey dungarees with a pattern of little race cars all over it. The little boy squealed in delight and amusement as the large metal gates swung open as Severus approached and he grinned at his friends “Claire, you’ve got a wand you could have come up”

“Oh, good point, didn’t want to cause a scene by just wondering up into the grounds”

Jacob frowned at his wife “It’s a magic school Claire, I don’t think much can phase them. Anyway-” he pulled Severus into a warm hug “Congratulations are in order, well done mate”

Severus laughed “Well I think Jade did most of the work, I just had some input with the conception”

Claire grinned and kissed him on the cheek as they hugged “No, seriously, well done, how is the little one doing?”

“Well he’s barely slept and neither have we, but he’s great, he’s perfect”

“It’s good to see you this happy, I can’t wait to meet him”

Claire picked up Thomas and the four of them made their way over the grass and up towards the castle. Severus was fascinated that as a muggle married to a witch who really didn’t use much magic in their house, Jacob didn’t seem that phased by the enormous castle, and he realised that Albus had obviously relaxed the usual muggle-repelling charms for Jacob to come in.

They passed the Lake and were talking as they passed one or two students, who all looked baffled by Professor Snape looking completely different in casual clothes with his hair different, and having a casual chat with some people they didn’t recognize.

Jacob glanced back towards the lake where the squid was waving at them and shook his head at the ridiculousness of it all.

“This place is a bit different to the school I went to I can tell you that for sure”

Severus laughed “we don’t get many muggles here, I’ll tell you that”

“But I’m allowed?”

“Yes of course you are you idiot. If you didn’t know about the magical world it might be a hard sell but it’s fine, parents sometimes visit their kids here if they’re unwell or whatever, and a fair amount of them are muggleborn”

“I assumed muggle born kids were in the minority?”  
Severus shook his head “that’s what the pure bloods would tell you, but it’s not true. A fairly even mix. Of course the ones who are here now, and a few years above and below, they are a much, much smaller intake of students than when we were here”

Jacob frowned “because of the war? Their parents were killed off?”

“Uhuh. Well, those who would have had kids at any rate, and that’s both death eaters and innocent people here. There are lots of people who would have had kids, and who would have maybe had more than the one they had. Amelia Bones never had any children because her boyfriend was killed off in the same attack that got her brother and she never found anyone else. I’m sure the Potter’s and the Longbottom’s would have had more children if they’d been able”

“I reckon you’ll have loads more kids”

Severus glared at his friend “piss off”

As they got to the castle entrance most of the students were loudly in the Great Hall having lunch, Severus saw Professor Sprout walking down the stairs looking quite stressed and glanced at his friends “Give me a second, she’s doing us a favour”

Thomas was looking around in amusement as Claire entertained him by making some sparks flutter around him out of the air before disappearing whilst Sprout quietly congratulated Severus and he thanked her for covering Jade’s classes whilst the baby was so small.  
  
Jacob wasn’t paying much attention and was more interested in the architecture of the entrance hall and heard a voice beside him.

“Are you with the governors?”

Jacob laughed “no mate I’m a muggle”

The boy looked a bit baffled but nodded “Oh, okay, sorry”

Severus sighed as he came back over “Longbottom aren’t you meant to be at lunch?”

“Uh, yes, Professor I just forgot my bag and had to go back”

Claire blinked “Longbottom? You’re Frank and Alice’s son?”

Neville looked excited “Yes, did you know them?”

Claire grinned “we were all at school together, your parents were food friends with me and Jade, Professor Greenlake I mean. God you look a lot like them don’t you”

Severus glanced at the baffled Gryffindor boy “Longbottom is one of Jade’s best herbology students. We should get going”

He wasn’t really sure why he had done it, saying that in front of Neville had very obviously brightened the boys day, and he really wasn’t as much of the terrifying potions master as they thought he was.  
  
\--//--

Thomas had pointed and said ‘baby!’ several times, Claire had cried and Jacob had congratulated them both whilst baffled by his wife sobbing as she held James.  
  
Jade was grateful Severus was such a good and attentive father. She wasn’t surprised that he had that paternal instinct, but over the first week or so of James’ life, he was just as happy to change a nappy as Jade was, walked around their rooms to get him to sleep, kissed his head when he drifted off, and was clearly just amazed that this tiny little human was his son.

Jade had decided to go partially with formula feeds when she was just too tired to feed James herself, and the bond between the two of them was now if possible even closer than ever, but they hadn’t really discussed the awkward declaration that he wanted to get married that Severus had announced in the middle of Jade trying to give birth to James. They both knew that it couldn’t be ignored and one of them would eventually mention it, but for now they were both just basking in every little thing that James did, and taking hundreds of photos it seemed.

A week after giving birth Jade still hadn’t managed to open most of the presents and letters they had received, which were now piling up in the spare bedroom.

Harry, Remus and by now the rest of the teachers had all come to visit the pair of them and James several times, but Jade hadn’t made it out of their rooms.

It was a week after James was born and Severus was speaking to Slughorn somewhere in the castle about the potions classes, and Jade had washed her hair, dressed and put on a bra for the first time in a week, and had put James in a sling style baby carrier on her front and wandered out into the castle and was walking around in the outer courtyards and was talking to a sleeping James on her chest about some of the birds flitting around in the empty courtyard, not that the baby was listening or could compute what she had said, but Jade found herself doing it anyway.

There was a noise behind her and Jade turned, seeing Draco Malfoy looking very sulky and on his own at the entrance, looking awkward

“Sorry, I didn’t know anyone was here, I’ll go”

“No, no, it’s fine, I won’t be long. I used to come here when I was your age, most people don’t know about it and it is nice and quiet isn’t it”

The blonde boy nodded awkwardly, eyes fixed on the sleeping baby “is he…………………………..is he…….. healthy?”

That made Jade laugh and she put her hand on the baby’s back “not good with children Draco?”

He shook his head “no siblings and no cousins”

Jade frowned “you’ve got cousins. Nymphadora...”

Draco looked awkward “mum doesn’t talk about her ever. Is she........”

“She’s in the auror programme, very, very good at her job”

The pair looked at each other in silence for a few seconds before Draco dropped his eyes “my father said he’s going to come.... when they come to the castle for.... you know....”

“To execute the hippogriff?”

The blonde boy nodded awkwardly and Jade ran a hand over her face “when I told you that you need to be aware that your actions have consequences, this is the sort of thing I was talking about Draco...”

“I’ve tried to reason with him but, well, you’ve met my father. He thinks if he goes back then it looks ‘weak’ and that is one thing my father will never do”

Jade just nodded slowly and rubbed James’ back a little as he stirred but didn’t wake “I’ll do what I can to stop Buckbeak being executed, alright, but I can’t promise anything, the Minister and your dad both hate me, so it might not be very......... within the rules.....”

Draco looked relieved “thank you, thank you so much Professor”

\--//--

Inside the castle Severus was heading back towards his and Jade’s rooms when he saw that Remus had his office door open and the light on he glanced in, seeing his former classmate poring over marking and knocked on the door lightly.

“Remus, I just wanted to remind you about the Wolfsbane potion, it’s a week and a half until the next full moon”

Remus looked up, looking exhausted “Uh, yes, no, I did remember, thanks Severus. Are you still able to do it, with the baby and everything? If you haven’t got time then I understand-”

Severus put a hand up to stop him talking “I promised Jade I would make it for you every month, so that’s what I am doing. It’s most prepared already anyway”

“Thank you Severus, thank you so much for all of this, and for making Jade happy. You both deserve it”

He didn’t really know what to say and just nodded slightly “Sirius Black has got in to the castle twice now, and chances are he has seen the birth announcement in the Daily Prophet, I am concerned that he might try it again… we can’t afford to be _weak_ at the moment, and without this potion you aren’t around to help, and I’m not letting anything happen to my family”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone who sticks with me. As you guessed it, we;re heading quickly to the third and final time Sirius breaks in to the castle and, well, shit hits the fan.  
> I've written a part for the summer holidays' between years 3 and 4 that actually broke my heart a bit so there's all that to wait for


	48. Chapter 48

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few bits we had to get out the way before dun, dun, dun, Sirius and Jade come face to face again.
> 
> So, this took a bit longer than expected because I got engaged tis weekend!

It was the full moon again, and Remus had been diligently taking the wolfsbane for the last few days as both Jade and Severus had been making sure he did, especially as Jade wasn’t really able to be away from the baby long enough to transform into her animagus form and go down with him to the forest.

The baby was doing well, and the little family were settling into being a family of 3 quite well. Jade was forever grateful for living in the magical world, spells to clean, empty bins full of nappies and form a silent barrier around the baby so they could carry on as normal around him when he was asleep instead of having to creep around their rooms.

Severus was more than doing his part, which Jade was grateful for, and he House Elves were thrilled to have a little one to help out with, and Jade thought it was hilarious that after being released from the Malfoy house, Dobby had come to work at Hogwarts, and he was one of the ones that kept arriving to help them out.

The full moon was on the same day as the Ministry had planned to execute Buckbeak, and Jade was frankly thinking she had too much on her plate with baby James only being a few weeks old, but she had made a promise to Draco to try and keep the Hippogriff alive and she wasn’t thrilled but she was going to do her best.

 

Severus had gone back to teaching one or two classes whilst Slughorn continued to cover most of them for him. Their old Professor was quite happy to be back at Hogwarts so he had hung around a bit longer, and he and Severus would share out the classes between them.

It was starting to get quite cloudy outside and the temperature had dropped, which meant that despite being a weekend, most of the students were likely to be inside, which she knew would work in her favour.

After a quick shower Jade dressed in jeans, a black top and leather jacket before finding Severus in their main living room on the sofa with his feet on the coffee table and reading a book. He glanced up as she came in and he could see that she was dressed with her hair up and frowned “You venturing out?”

“Yes, actually. I need to leave James with you, if that is okay? He’s just been fed and he’s asleep in our room, I shouldn’t be long, there’s formula and bottles… is that okay?”

“Of course it is. Anything good or do you just need some fresh air?”

“I’m off to stop a hippogriff being killed”

Severus blinked in confusion for a second before just nodding “I’m not even going to ask, probably best I don’t know and I can just claim ignorance”

Jade just smirked and they shared a kiss before she left, heading straight down to the pumpkin patch at Hagrid’s hut.

It was surprisingly chilly and cloudy for early afternoon so there wasn’t any students out on the grounds as far as she could see. Jade was good at moving unseen and silently anyway, so they wouldn’t have clocked her anyway. There was the distant sounds of a team in the middle of quidditch practice down at the stadium but that was right over the other side of the grounds.

Hagrid was sat on the steps of the hut, gently sobbing when Jade saw him and he looked baffled “Jade, what are you doin’ here?”

“Why don’t you go in and make yourself a cup of tea Hagrid”

“Nah, I wanted to say goodbye-”

“I’m going to sort it Hagrid, best you stay inside and then you can pretend you didn’t know, alright?”

“You’re sure?”

“Just put the kettle on Hagrid”

He hugged her tightly and disappeared back into the hut. Jade walked back down to the pumpkin patch where the Hippogriff was resting. In her periphery she saw three very familiar figures walking down towards her.

Jade glared at the three teenagers, voice quiet “And _what_ exactly are you doing, or is it just going to annoy me?”

Ron nodded “it will **definitely** annoy you”

She glanced between them all and held her hand out “Someone give me their wand”

Hermione handed hers over without a further question and Jade nodded “Stay here, I’ll be back in a minute”

Jade moved down past the pumpkin patch and easily jumped over the wooden picketed fence around where Buckbeak was being held.

The teenagers couldn’t hear the spells she was using, but a second later there was a loud clang as the chains around the hippogriff fell to the ground, and the creature spread its wings at the freedom. Jade stroked the animals face gently and it made a happy, grateful noise and nuzzled into her. Jade muttered a series of spells with Hermione’s wand and there was a strange sort of haze in the air around it before Jade spoke quietly to the animal before it squaked, raising its head, spreading its wings and then with a satisfied noise, leapt into the air and began to quickly fly away, away from the castle and it wasn’t far to the gate and the boundaries, disappearing quickly.

Jade had a satisfied expression on her face as she quickly headed back to the three teenagers and she threw her wand to Hermione who caught it surprisingly well but she looked surprised “Professor, but the Minister is here for-”

Jade waved a hand uncaringly “Yes, I know, but you three are making yourself scarce right now, and then if they check **my** wand, then there isn’t any way to tie it to me”

Ron frowned “They will know it was you”

Jade shrugged with a smirk “Yea, obviously, but they can’t prove anything, and sometimes Ron, that is enough. Now you three need to get a move on and get out of here”

Ron just gaped “And you’re not worried about the Minister?”

Jade made a rather derisive noise at the thought of Fudge and went back down towards the pumpkin patch.

\--//--

 

It was about fifteen minutes later that Dumbledore, the executioner, Lucius Malfoy and Fudge came trudging down the grounds, stopping when they saw her.

Jade was sat on a giant pumpkin that was probably about four foot tall and just as wide. She had a rather smug look on her face and everyone looked at her as Lucius glared at her “what are you doing here?”

“Just hanging out waiting for this scintillating conversation Lucius”

It wasn’t really a surprise that Fudge was a bit scared of Jade and glanced at her warily “Where is the Hippogriff?”

Jade managed a shrug of practiced nonchalance “It flew away”

“What do you mean?”

“The hippogriff, bucklebeak or something? It must have not been chained well enough”

Fudge narrowed his eyes “it was named Buckbeak, you know that as well as I do **_Miss Greenlake_**. Now tell me what you did”

“What **_ever_** do you mean Minister?”

“You have too much of a smug look to have no had a part in this”

Jade shrugged “that’s just my natural face minister, ‘smug bitch’ is what my brother used to call me. Now, that hippogriff was tied with magic, and I would have had to use my wand. Feel free to check my wand”

She threw the wand to Fudge and he glared at her whilst muttering the spell to show her last spells. They let three come out, and they were all simple spells, nothing that could have let the Hippogriff out before he stopped the spell and stared at her “If you had nothing to do with it then why are you sat here looking smug?”

“Just waiting for you and Lucius, you know, we’re all such good friends”

Lucius looked apoplectic with rage, the executioner looked vacant, Albus looked like he was trying not to laugh and Fudge didn’t seem to be sure what to do or say.

Albus smiled “Well, it seems like we are no longer in need of an executioner, the beast must have just flown away then- Hagrid, a cup of tea?”

Hagrid met Jade’s eye and she winked before waving sarcastically to the group of men “I need to get back to my son, I was just out for a quick bit of air. I’ll see you gentlemen later”

 

On her return to the castle, Jade passed Draco Malfoy and his friends in the hallway, the blonde boy trying to stem the bleeding from his nose.

She stopped briefly, using her wand and a silent spell she fixed the bone and cleared the blood.

“Anyone want to tell me what happened here or am I just going to be annoyed?”

The three boys looked awkward and she nodded “very well. You should get back to your common room, the Minister for Magic and Lucius Malfoy are around and they are really not happy. Seems someone let the hippogriff go”

Crabbe and Goyle just blinked, neither seeing the look of sheer relief on Draco’s face as he mouthed ‘thank you’ to Jade before she turned and walked back to her rooms, a little grin on her face.

\--//--

James was starting to fuss when Jade went back to their rooms, and Severus was about to make a bottle for him but Jade said she would feed him herself, and she was sat on one sofa breastfeeding the baby whilst Severus made a cup of tea “I’ll assume by how happy you look, that you’ve managed to save the hippogriff?”

“I’ll give you the full story once Lucius has gone”

“Why Is Lucius here?”

“He wanted to see the Hippogriff die, it was him that pushed for the execution, seeing as it all stemmed from a lie his son let get out of hand”

Severus didn’t say anything, sitting down in the armchair “I can’t really deal with him today, I told Minerva I would cover the detentions in a bit, seeing as she has done a lot for us”

“No, of course, we’ll have something nice for dinner once you’re back and this little sweetie is asleep”

“Sounds good. He’s been sleeping quite well recently”

“Lets not jinx it Sev”

\--//--

Dobby was very well meaning but a bit over excitable for Jade’s nerves sometimes, seeing as she was barely sleeping because of the baby, but she enjoyed his company, and it was nice to speak to someone sometimes.

He seemed to understand that she generally enjoyed his company, and would visit their rooms more frequently than the Elves usually did, especially as they usually weren’t really heard or seen but Dobby would pop in when he knew it was just Jade and baby James on her own and do the tidying and restocking when she was there.

Frankly once Severus had gone to cover the detentions it was getting late and she had given James a bath and put him down to sleep. Jade had had a shower and was walking around her room feeling unsettled in her pyjamas.

She wasn’t sure if it was stress, tiredness or something else, but she felt like she couldn’t quite settle down. It was a few minutes after that that Dobby came in, wearing a tea cosy and looking thrilled to see her.

“Miss Jade, hello. Afternoon, afternoon. Dobby came to see you, is Mister Severus not here?”

“He’s doing the late detentions Dobby, and James is asleep so it’s just me here”

“Why does you look sad Miss Jade?”

She glanced at the house elf, always surprised how perceptive he could be.

“Something isn’t right Dobby, I can just tell”

Big eyes blinked back at her “Well, will you fix it Miss Jade?”

“It might be nothing though, and I can’t leave the baby”

Jade had only left James briefly, and always with Severus so far, never with anyone who wasn’t his parents. The gut feeling of something being really, truly wrong was one that Jade had had before, and that was what really concerned her. She’d had that feeling before, and it hadn’t been wrong before.

“Dobby, will you look after James until Severus or I get back?”

“Of course Miss. Dobby will take good care of him, I helped look after Master Malfoy when he was a baby”

Jade had a fleeting thought that Draco had turned out a bit of a wanker, but it wasn’t really the time, and so went back into her bedroom.

Jade pulled on her bra and a loose mid length black dress that was loose, took her hair out of the ponytail and it was in loose, long curls down her back as she gripped her wand and pulled on shoes before taking one last glance at her sleeping son and kissed his forehead, before slipping out of the bedroom.

It hurt her heart to leave James for the first time, but the feeling in the pit of her stomach was one she trusted, she had had it in the previous year when the Basilisk had been around the castle, and the last two times that Sirius had broken into the castle. Gideon had **always** told her in no uncertain terms that her instincts were something she had to rely on, and with thoughts on her deceased friends words ringing in her ears, and tears in her eyes, Jade turned and left.

\--//--

 

Severus was overseeing the detentions but that was way on the other side of the castle and Jade now felt certain something wasn’t right. It was dark outside now and the nearest person to her was Remus’ office, and so she swept down the empty corridor and burst through the door.

It was empty, except for an unfolded sheet of parchment on the desk which was all too familiar to her.

Jade glanced down, now feeling sick to her stomach, as she saw a series of figures moving around on the Marauders Map on where it showed the shrieking shack.

_Ron Weasley_

_Harry Potter_

_Hermione Granger_

_Remus Lupin_

_Sirius Black_

The Shack was so small, the names so overlapping, and the panic at Sirius’ name being on there that Jade didn’t even see that Peter’s name was there too.

 

Jade transformed into her jaguar animagus form so that she could sprint through the castle and at full pelt down over the grass, heart pounding in her chest as se headed for the Shack. IT was starting to rain, and the weather was now cold, but the fact that the three teenagers and Remus were in danger kept her going, as did the threat that Sirius posed to baby James up at the castle.

Transforming back from her animagus form, there were noises at the end of the tunnel and she followed, using every skill as an auror to not make a single sound, no snapped twigs, no rustling, nothing.

 Harry, Hermione, Remus, Ron and Sirius were in the filthy, mess of a shack and arguing loudly, everyone holding on to their wands.

Suddenly, everyone turned as one to see Jade pointing a wand at Sirius, seeming to appear from nowhere, and none of them missed the fact that the end of her wand was gently lit in a mix of purple and green light, and Sirius knew that she was debating incapacitating him or just outright killing him.

“Jade, please-”

Her eyes were cold and almost emotionless, the impassive expression was pure auror, she was no longer their friend, this was purely ferocious anger and she was staring at the man who had once been like a brother to her.

“Do you have anything to say before I kill you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading.  
> Kudos and comments mean so so so much thanks everyone! x


	49. Chapter 49

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so so unwell, and this and the next chapter were becoming one long long long long long chapter so this is the first half and the second one will be in the next few days.

Remus and Sirius looked panicked for the first time.

The idea that Severus might come down had been a concern but Jade, well Jade could easily overpower a room of ten Death Eaters with her eyes closed, and that was on a normal day. Right now she was looking at the man she held responsible for her twin brothers death, and the rage in her eyes said everything.

Remus stuttered “J-Jade, pl-please just listen to us”

Jade couldn’t bare to look at Remus. When she had come in to the shack she had taken stock of the situation and hadn’t missed the fact that Remus had been stood casually beside Sirius, neither with their wands pointed at each other, and the feeling of betray really stung.

Admittedly she’d never suspected Sirius, but feeling that Remus had been blinded by his feeling for him enough to endanger the teenagers, everyone in the school and her new born baby was just horrific.

Harry moved between Sirius and Jade, facing his aunt with a panicked expression “Please, Jade, my dad wouldn’t want you to do this”

Jade was only 5 foot 5, and Sirius was a little over 6 foot, and Harry was only 13, so he didn’t block their line of sight at all, and Jade made up for her smaller stature in the unbridled anger in her face, the air thick like it was humid with the barely restrained magic radiating off her.

 “Harry, step aside”

“No”

“You don’t know what this man has done Harry. My parents welcomed him into their home as my brother and then he betrayed James and he betrayed Lily, he left you to be raised by the Dursley’s and then killed his other friend. The only ones left are me and Remus, and clearly he’s already wormed his way back-”

Harry paled, voice pleading “Please don’t do this”

Jade didn’t lower her eyes or wand, both still fixed on a scared looking Sirius “I said step aside. Don’t be an idiot, I can move you with magic”

Harry had seen her angry before, but this was pure, unbridled rage, her breath shaking slightly not in fear, **definitely** not fear, more like the effort to keep herself from casting the killing curse then and there.

“Please, he’s telling the truth, the rat- Ron’s Rat, scabbers, it’s Pettigrew”

 “Harry, you don’t need to be here for this-“

“Jade please”

“Harry.  **Step**.  ** _Aside_** ”

Remus tried to interject “Jade please-“

Sirius had his hands up in an attempt to de-escalate the situation.

“Look, please listen to me, Bug-“

That made her snap “you don’t get to bloody call me that! That was James’ name for me and he’s dead, because of you! Harry move out the way and I’ll deal with him. There’s a capture or kill order out, and I know what I’m going to do with him-“

Harry suddenly shouted “no! My dad wouldn’t want his sister to kill his best friend”

Jade faltered at that, as if only just realising the teenagers were even in the room “he wouldn’t want me to do this in front of you”

Her eyes flickered to an injured Ron and then Hermione in the corner of the room, though she couldn’t quite bring herself still to look at Remus.

Harry obviously thought he had gotten somewhere “So you’ll-“

Jade just shook her head, wand not dropping and eyes not leaving her former friend “No. I’ll hand him to the dementors. The Dementors Kiss might just be a more fitting punishment”

Remus barely managed to get his words out, voice barely a squeak “Jade-“

“There is a capture or kill order on you Sirius Black, and I gladly co-signed that order. You are the reason Harry is an orphan, you caused Lilly’s death, and you’re the reason I have had to leave my new born son at the castle with House Elves, and I have come out here to try and keep these teenagers safe, and then I find out Remus is working with you” Jade shook her head, clearly pained by this “As if I haven’t had enough people lie to me”

Jade finally looked at Remus for the first time, complete and utter heartbreak on her face at looking at him standing there beside Sirius, not holding his wand up, not trying to restrain him, standing together like they were all 20 again.

Remus swallowed “Sirius was telling the truth, all this time”

Jade moved a few steps back and to the side, so that Harry was no longer between her and Sirius, but her wand was still pointed at her former friend.

“Forgive me for not believing you Remus, but sentiment makes you weak, we both know that”

 --//--

 

Back at the castle Severus had finished covering the detentions and had gone back to his rooms and, assuming Jade and James were sleeping in the bedroom, he had shrugged out of his black teaching robes into his casual clothes underneath and had started to make a cup of tea before nearly jumping out of his skin at seeing the House Elf Dobby suddenly appear beside him.

“Mister Snape the baby is sleeping, very happy baby”

Severus just stared in confusion “No offence but why are you here? Is Jade asleep?”

“Miss Greenlake says to Dobby something is wrong, and says Dobby needs to look after the baby”

Severus stopped suddenly, glancing back at the smiling House Elf “Did she say where she was going?”

“No Sir, not to Dobby, Sir. She said she was going to speak to Mister Lupin, Sir. Then she hurried off, Sir”

Severus was holding the tea cup so hard that the handle broke and he knew what he had to do. Leaving the baby wasn’t exactly ideal, but Jade’s instincts were never wrong, and if she had run off after danger, then he was going to go and help her.

Ignoring the cut on his hand, Severus looked to the elf “Please, just look after my son”

“Dobby promises Sir”

Without another thought, Severus grabbed his wand and swept out the room to Lupin’s office, crossing his fingers for some sort of answer.

\--//--

 At the shack Jade was using a non verbal spell on Sirius, and it was like a boa constrictor was around him, slowly squeezing his chest and stomach and constricting his breathing. She wasn’t even aware she was doing it, the magic just spilling over as her hurt and anger just unable to hold back any more.

Jade was so blinkered by her feelings that she hadn’t even really clocked the fact there was a rat about two foot away from Ron, that was magically being held in place by Remus and was struggling and squirming to get out.

“Sirius, don’t make this harder than it has to be, you never know, the Dementors Kiss might be quite painless, at least it will be less painful that what I am going to do”

There was a noise and they all saw Severus appear in the doorway, wearing a long sleeved dark grey t-shirt and black trousers, hair pushed back and wide eyed, wand in hand but by his side and eyes raking over the three teenagers, Jade and the two Marauders, all of which were looking at him, and he noted that Jade hadn’t lowered her wand even a millimetre, a slight tremor in her hand.

Severus looked between everyone in the room “Jade, he’s right”

She didn’t look away from Sirius who was by now genuinely struggling to breathe “What do you mean?”

“I went to Lupin’s office to give him the potion for tonight. There was a map on the desk, I assume that’s what that parchment really was that Harry had before Easter- it has everyone in the castle’s movements”

At that, Jade glanced at him and away from Sirius, but her wand stayed pointed at his head and he was still slightly struggling to breathe “What’s the Marauder’s Map got to do with this?”

Severus had to stop the eye roll at the self indulgent name of the map, though he had silently been very impressed at the magic behind it but he explained as quick as possible before Jade managed to do something she might regret “Because that map showed Peter Pettigrew here, and it wouldn’t do that if he was dead, would it”

Sirius looked exasperated by the whole interaction, now able to breathe a little more easily as Jade was more in control of herself “See J, told you I was right”

Remus shushed him quickly and Jade just looked at Severus intently “You’re sure?”

“I’m sure. If Peter is alive then Sirius was always right, and he was framed” Severus moved towards her and put a hand on her face and the other gently lowered her wand hand “Sirius didn’t cause your brother’s death, Peter did, and he’s here somewhere”

Harry, Ron and Hermione looked relieved but all the adults all looked on high alert still, the tension in the room palpable.

Wand lowered but still tightly held, Jade turned slowly back to Remus “how did you know?”

“The same. I saw it on the map and came down here. We thought it was strange when Sirius broke in he went for Ron’s bed not Harry’s. Their trunks with their initials are at the end of the bed. It wasn’t Harry he wanted, it was Scabbers, the rat. It’s not a rat, it’s been Peter all this time”

At that Remus pointed the magically stuck rat on the floor and Jade just blinked, looking too lost to process the situation.

Jade retched, a hand to her mouth and Severus touched her back and she seemed to calm a little at that. She didn’t vomit and looked from Remus, to Severus, to Sirius, to the rat.

“You’re sure?”

Severus said nothing and the two Marauder’s nodded and both muttered “Yes”

It was Jade who muttered the spell at the rat, and before her eyes, the animagus form dropped away, and the face of a man she had thought dead for a decade, and realised he looked even worse than Sirius had when she had seen him in Azkaban the year before.

Harry, Ron and Hermione had moved quickly to the other corner of the room.

With petrified eyes, Peter managed to stutter out a ‘Jade I’m sorry” before she lunged at him. Jade had virtually forgotten her wand, launching over the room and punching Peter in the face so hard that there was a loud crunch, his nose clearly broken.

She had worked with and been taught by three incredibly skilled aurors in Gideon, Fabian and Alastor, she had won duelling contests as a teenager, she had fought and won against rooms full of death eaters and barely broken a sweat.

Before all that she had been Jade Potter, and she had grown up with James and eventually Sirius, so throwing a punch was something that came equally naturally to her, and she could practically hear the cheer James would have given her at the sight.

After two more hard punches, his face was covered in blood, Jade was breathing heavily, and an arm around her middle pulled her back, and she fell back on her knees, breathing ragged.

There was a voice in her ear muttering “He’s not worth it” and Jade nearly jumped out of her skin when she realised it was Sirius that had pulled her off and was right behind her, and she flinched, scrabbling away from him as quick as possible.

The fact that Peter was there proved that Sirius hadn’t been behind giving up James and Lilly’s location and causing their deaths, and that he had been right all the time, but the hatred was so ingrained that it startled her to have him so close to her.

Peter sat up blearily and wiping the blood from his face.

Jade just looked at him with confusion, anger and shock clouding her face. She wasn’t even aware enough to try and hide her emotions as usual and gripped his face hard at the chin and forced her way into his mind.

It was like falling down a hole, she wasn’t concentrating properly, she was prepared, so she just saw memories flitting by, but she had seen enough.

She had seen everything, and it felt like someone had stabbed her in the stomach, nausea waving over her and it was Severus who waved his wand, binds wrapping around Peter tightly, and whilst he could breathe, Severus wasn’t exactly keeping him comfortable. As Peter opened his mouth, presumably to try and plead with them, Remus flicked his wand and his jaw locked shut, unable to open it again.

The three teenagers looked at each other, Jade was just on her knees still and getting up shakily, Remus was beside Severus, both looking stoic and calm, and Sirius held out a hand to help Jade to her feet.

After a second she took the offered hand and then in the silence of the creaking shack, turned to Sirius and the pair looked at each other in silence for what felt like half an hour but was only probably a few seconds before she pulled him in to a bone crushing hug. He had wanted to do it first, but he was a bit worried that the emotional ups and downs of the last hour or so might make her freak out if he moved so fast.

Sirius swallowed and let a few tears drop from his eyes as they held each other incredibly tightly for a long time before Remus put a hand on her shoulder and murmured “we need to get back to the castle”

They parted and Jade wiped the tears from her cheeks and as Remus and Sirius were preparing to move peter she moved over to where Severus was standing, still in the doorway and away from everyone else. He gave her a wary look and she ignored it, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him hard. Her voice was quiet and she didn’t let go of him “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have left-“

He put his hands on her waist and cut her off, voice still quiet to keep the conversation between the two of them “James is safe, and you’ve helped free your friend from a lifetime on the run. You did the right thing”

She exhaled in relief that he wasn’t going to be annoyed that she had left their newborn son with a House Elf.

“Thank you, I love you”

“I love you too”

“Oh, and there’s a Hippogriff in the grounds of Potter House but we can sort that tomorrow”

Severus faltered for a second “buckbeak? I thought they were executing it? Is that what you were up to earlier?”

“It’s a long story but he’s pretty tame”

“Best not eat those roses. They cost a lot of money”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for keeping with me everyone. likes and comments mean so much x


	50. Chapter 50

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follows immediately from the last. Sorry this took so long to get out, but I had certain things that had to be done to work out other things.

She let out a shaky laugh and Severus moved to help Ron to his feet, talking quietly as Remus, Sirius and Jade looked at each other in complete shock before giving each other a quick hug with the three of them not wanting to let each other go.

Severus had levitated a still-bound Peter in front of them, and Jade and Harry had been on either side of Ron as he limped, an arm around each side to help him, Sirius and Remus walked beside each other, and Hermione between them all. Everyone walked in silence up to the castle over the grass towards the quite dark castle, where it was the middle of the night so everyone was asleep.

Jade had assumed they would get through the castle unnoticed as the students were all asleep, or at least that’s what she had thought.

The only people who could get around at that time of the night without one of the ghosts informing a teacher was a Prefect. Or, notably, the Head Boy and the head Slytherin Prefect.

They didn’t use the main entrance, instead going through a side tunnel that they had snuck in and out of many times as students themselves, and it was just off the prefect bathroom and generally very quiet even in the daytime, so everyone stopped short when they saw the pair of them there.

Percy had his back against the cold stone wall and Lucas had a hand in the curly ginger hair as he kissed him hard, their bodies pressed together and breathing heavily.

At the noise they pair broke apart quickly and everyone just met eyes across the corridor, the two 18 year olds looking mortified and then shocked at the group there. Three of their professors, Percy’s brother with a clearly injured leg, Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, the wizarding worlds most wanted criminal, and a man tied up who was supposed to be dead.

Both of the seventh year boys went for their wands but Jade put her hands up “Boys, please, you trust me don’t you?”

They both nodded and she continued “I can explain, just put your wands down. That man, tied up, he’s Peter Pettigrew. He is the one who betrayed my brother and his wife, not Sirius Black. He’s an unregistered animagus just like I was, and he’s been living as the Weasley pet Scabbers for years”

Percy paled “What the fuck? I let you sleep in my  _bed_ \- Jesus Christ”

Lucas was still staring at Sirius “Professor? Are you  _sure_? I mean, that’s…”

“I’m sure Lucas, if we can get Peter to the Ministry then we can clear Sirius Black’s name, that is what we are doing, I didn’t expect to see anyone down here. Professor Snape and Lupin are with me on this, and you trust their judgement”

Both the boys nodded very slowly, still embarrassed at being caught and with no clue what the hell fslywas going on.

A little drowsy from his injury, Ron groaned slightly “really Percy? Of all the people you could have chosen-“ everyone took a slight breath thinking he was about to berate his brother for being gay but instead he just shook his head “you had to choose a  ** _Slytherin_**? God there’s plenty of other men in your year aren’t there? Even a  **Hufflepuff**  would have been better”

Lucas snorted with laughter, Percy looked somewhere between flustered and relieved and the adults all glanced at each other and Severus sighed “can we do this another time you two?”

Remus was starting to breathe heavily now and had gone impossibly pale.

Severus glanced around with wide eyes “you didn’t take the potion today did you?”

Remus just shook his head and Sirius, Jade and Severus looked at each other in a panic and she felt her instincts kick in “He’s had it for the rest of the week, everyone back out-”

It was too late, and whilst the last three or so days of the potion helped, it wasn’t enough to stop Remus completely. He didn’t transform, but the pain ripped through his body and his eyes went yellow, looking at everyone in the tunnel like they were prey.

Severus looked at the two Prefects with wild eyes “Keep them safe” and motioned to the three third years and it was as the anger and the predatory nature of the wolf taking over Remus that made everyone nervous. He still looked human, but the entire nature of him had changed, and Severus swore to himself, drawing his wand.

Remus smirked “Oh Severus, you really think that’s all it is going to take?”

Sirius held his wand tighter “Come on Remus, don’t let him take over, you’re stronger than that”

Severus gripped Hermione’s upper arm tightly and slowly pulled her behind him, and she took the message and pulled Harry and Ron with her, so that the three teenagers were nearest the entrance to the tunnel, and Percy and Lucas moved slowly but surely around so they were beside Severus, the teenagers now covered by adults and final year students and were slowly backing out of the tunnel.

Jade spoke calmly and with a very forced amount of calm, well aware that her son was sleeping only a few corridors away “Remus, calm down, take a breath. You’ve taken the potion for a few days, the last dose should help you to-”

His eyes snapped to her with pure derision on his face “Oh Jade, don’t be so  _pathetic_. You think having Sirius back can fix that big empty hole in your heart? You think that baby will help? You’ll still be the same sad little rich girl terrified that someone might leave her”

Jade knew it was the moon making him talk, but his words still hurt.

“Yeah, you’re right Moony, you’re always right, but I know you, and you don’t want to hurt anyone here. Think of the teenagers, think of my son, think of Sirius”

Remus’ eyes flickered to Sirius and his shoulders slumped a little, eyes darkening, the yellow abating a little and their old friend returning, breathing raggedly.

“I don’t know what…”

He trailed off and lost his concentration, which also meant the spell that he was holding on to lost its strength.

With a dull thud, Peter fell to the ground, the binds around him broken, and he immediately turned to run down the tunnel, knocking Hermione to the floor and running out back down to the grounds.

Remus swore loudly and Jade was the quickest to move, sprinting with surprising agility. She wasn’t really surprised to see a tall blonde-brunette keeping pace beside her, Lucas was as quick as her, and actually overtook her, shouting a spell at Peter’s retreating back that made him stumble down a grassy bank but he got up and kept running.

Jade didn’t think before transforming into her animagus jaguar, sprinting across the dark grass, a large black dog beside her making her feel like old times again.

As they saw Peter heading towards the tree line, both of them transformed back into their human forms and fired hexes and spells. Peter was no great duellist, but he had been a Marauder, and he knew how to protect himself and had a fantastic ability to form an incredibly strong shield spell. He hadn’t been as good as the rest of the Marauders or Jade at other subjects, but their pranks meant that that was one spell he’d perfected.

He didn’t turn, running as fast as his legs could take him towards the treeline, where he would be able to get out and to freedom. He had to slow down to transform, as going from a human size to a rat size was so unbalancing, whereas Jade and Sirius didn’t have to slow at all.

Over his shoulder Peter threw a spell that went straight between Sirius and Jade and there was a loud “Oi!” that she recognised as Ron and just hoped it hadn’t hit him.

Jade and Sirius were on a slight bank on the grass, transforming back, and she felt other people around and nearby, spells flying all over the place, and Peter was mostly shielding rather than attacking back. It was so dark and they were so near the treeline that it was not an easy fight, as no one could see each other well.

After Jade threw a spell that hit the tree just behind Peter’s head, burning a hole in the wood there. Angry, Peter threw a spell that hit Remus in the arm and he yelled in pain and Severus was the first to hit Peter, whatever the spell was sending him rolling backwards onto his back and everyone moved at the same time before the inevitable happened.

Peter disappeared into his animagus form.

Lucas and Sirius were the quickest, sprinting down to the treeline as Jade, Percy, Severus, Remus and Harry hurried after them, Hermione practically dragging a still injured Ron behind her.

\--

Everyone ran into the woods but there was nothing, just silence and rustling trees. 

Jade dropped to her knees and let out a noise of despair that made Harry’s heart hurt. He was going to move to her but Sirius did it first, kneeling beside her and the pair just hugged each other for a while.

After a while, the temperature dropped, and Jade felt light headed and so did Sirius, though everyone else seemed fine. Severus looked up sharply “Dementors?”

Sirius nodded slowly, movements becoming sluggish as he dropped to his knees and Jade looked almost drunk as she staggered a little “lots... lots of them”

It was a well known fact that the longer you were under the Dementors the worse your reactions were, and Jade was suffering after only 3 months in Azkaban, Sirius had spent a decade and was starting to look like he was going to pass out.

Severus glanced at the teenagers “can any of you do a patronus?”

Harry swallowed “only me”

He pulled a face and looked at Sirius kneeling on the floor and crouched down in front of him, voice clear and calm “Black, look at me, Sirius- there you go. I need you to stay focussed. If there’s this many then there’s only so much Remus, Percy, Lucas, me and a 13 year old can do. If they get to you first then you’re dead, do you  ** _get_**  that? Now pull yourself together and try and think of something happy. If you get through this, then you’ve got a shot, do you understand? Think of Harry, think of Jade and Remus, and think of the baby”

Sirius seemed to hear some of that and slowly nodded, coming around a bit and Severus helped heave him to his feet “that’s better. I’m not letting you meet my son if the dementors turn you into a vegetable so let’s get it together”

Sirius nodded distractedly, closing his eyes and standing up as Severus pulled him up and Remus helped Jade to her feet.

The demeontors were coming from all four sides, and the feeling of dread and cold was impossible to shift for most of them.

Strangely it was Harry who cast a patronus first, followed by the others. 

Ron and Hermione stood there in fear, and a ghostly stag, wolf, two jaguars, a large dog, and a large bird and a smaller one went speeding by and the combined force of them made the dementors shriek and leave in a large, black cloud, leaving just silence other than the heavy breathing of everyone there.

After a minute, Severus moved and turned, looking around at everyone with their startled faces and swallowed “We need to go”

He glanced at Harry, Ron and Hermione “You three are okay?”

-

Heading across the cold grass, Remus was muttering “It’s my fault, it’s all my fault” over and over until Sirius smacked the back of his head “Honestly please shut up you’re annoying me now. I don’t blame you so please stop blaming yourself”

Remus nodded but still looked close to tears as they all trudged up the grass for the second time that night.

Again they went in via the tunnel, and despite being in a lot of pain, Ron looked around at his brother “Here again Perce, keep your hands to yourself alright, we’re a bit busy so try not to push him up against the wall and snog him yeah?”

Percy went red and Lucas just laughed, everyone else grateful for the slightly broken tension.

Severus glanced at Jade’s sad expression and decided to take charge “our rooms are closest, we’ll go there and then... sort something out”

 Jade nodded and looked at him gratefully as she slid her fingers between his, and everyone followed them down the deserted corridors until they got to their rooms.

Everyone came in behind them and Severus made a shushing motion and they came into the main living room area.

The lights were dimmed and the fire was gently flickering.

Remus had been there before and immediately sat on one of the sofas, eyes distant.

Severus just nodded at the two Prefects and the teenagers and they all sat on the sofas and armchairs, and then Dobby appeared in the room.

“Mister Snape! Miss Jade! Baby James is a very good baby. Very happy boy and very sleepy. Only woke once Miss Jade”

She smiled gently, incredibly weary “thank you Dobby”

Harry blinked in surprise and the house elf smiled “hello Mister Potter!”

Jade just looked at her nephew and shook her head “I’ll explain later Harry. Dobby, thank you so much. Can you do us a favour, and go and get Professor Dumbledore for us?”

He smiled brightly “of course Miss.

Dobby will go right now”

The elf disappeared and Jade squeezes Sirius’s hand “it’s okay. We’ll sort something”

“Hmm”

 -

 A few seconds later there was a noise from their bedrooms and everyone turned to look. In the doorway, Severus was holding baby James to his chest, the little boys head resting on his fathers shoulder. He was shuffling a little and he glanced at Jade “you want him to?”

She nodded and despite the incredibly wary look he gave Sirius, Severus moved towards him and -whilst glaring him with obvious hatred- muttered “put your arms out”

Sirius did and with one hand Severus put the blanket on his arms and then gently, despite the fact he very very clearly didn’t want to, he put his son in Sirius’s arms.

The baby immediately snuggled into him, and Sirius looked at him with amazement, voice quiet in awe “you did it Bug, you had a baby”

At that, the nickname her brother had frequently used and Sirius had often used to annoy her, Jade felt herself well up with tears.

-

Albus looked around the room, a surprisingly warm smile on his face.

His eyes flickered between the three teachers, the three teenagers, Head Boy, Prefect, and finally Sirius, who was still holding the baby.

He glanced at Severus “Pettigrew got away then?”

No one asked how he knew, and frankly everyone was far too tired to even ask.

Severus just nodded and Albus sighed “Severus, come with me, we need to make a plan”

Jade moved to stand “I can help”

Severus sighed “I’m sorry darling, but you can’t be objective when it comes to Sirius”

She was silent for a second and nodded, sitting back down beside Sirius in silence as Severus and Albus moved into the spare bedroom to talk quietly.

Ron had his injured leg on the coffee table after asking Jade who just shrugged, really not caring.

Still holding baby James, Sirius looked across the room at the redhead “sorry, about the leg and all”

“Don’t worry about it”

Sirius half laughed, looking back down at James before glancing around the room again.

He spotted Percy and frowned “you’re a Weasley too I assume?”

“Yes”

He looked at Jade “the twins had a sister didn’t they?”

She nodded “Molly, five of her kids are currently students. Two have already graduated”

Sirius widened his eyes in surprise but looked back down at the baby, putting his finger in James’s palm as the tiny fingers sleepily wrapped around his own.

“You’ll be popping more out soon I suspect”

Jade rested her head back on the back of the sofa, eyes closed and half asleep “fuck off Sirius”

There was no malice in it and he scoffed a little, looking back to Remus, who was just staring,looking utterly checked out of the situation.

-

Lucas glanced at Percy “Well, this night certainly got weird very quickly”

From the other side of the living room Ron chimed in “probably a bit less fun than when we caught you”

Hermione swatted the back of Ron’s head, Percy went pink and Lucas just shook his head with an amused look, also sinking back into the sofa, exhausted. “I always assumed the teachers had horrible little rooms, this is really cosy”

Jade had her eyes closed but spoke “same. It’s alright, not as nice as my apartment or the house but nicer than what I expected when I took the job”

Harry glanced at his aunt “you’ve still kept the Diagonal Alley apartment?”

“Thought I may as well, I own it and Potter House outright so I’ll see what I want to do with it”

They lulled into silence, everyone acutely aware that the idle chit chat was nice but an obvious attempt at distracting everyone from what had happened that evening, and the fact they were sat there with Sirius Black, who until a few hours ago they had all assumed was a murderer, and Remus still hadn’t said anything.

There was a long silence and Hermione spoke quietly to Ron and Harry and Jade turned to Sirius, seeing her son nestled still into him, comfortable and fast asleep, her voice barely above a whisper “I’m sorry”

He glanced at her, voice equally as quiet “Jade, I’m more annoyed you didn’t tell me you were in a relationship all through school, then I am with your part in my time in Azkaban. Apologise again and I’ll probably hex you”

He had a slight smile on his face and Jade felt herself relax.

-

A few minutes later Albus and Severus came out the spare bedroom, looking over the weary group.

The older wizard smiled gently “with Pettigrew missing, we can’t immediately prove your innocence Sirius, and I am sorry for that. I can’t see any immediate route other than to put you into hiding. Say your goodbyes for now, we need to get going before the Ministry come snooping after the Dementor attack earlier”

Everyone stood and Sirius hugged Jade with a restless James between then before handing back her son to her.

He hugged Remus tightly, muttering something that no one else heard into his ear that seemed to calm him down a little. Sirius quietly thanked the other students around him in the room, and gave Harry a quick but meaningful hug with a quiet promise to see him soon, before moving back to the Headmaster and the potions master he had bullied as a teenager.

Albus glanced at his pocket watch “Severus, you have exactly two minutes, that’s all I can offer you”

He sighed, and Severus looked at the man he had despised since he was 11, took a deep breath and sighed

“Do you want to do something really stupid?”

Sirius couldn’t help the grin on his face “always”

Severus held out his hand and Sirius looked a bit baffled as he was standing there palm up,  not like he was offering to shake it but took the hand anyway.

As he did, Severus appeared them both away, out of the castle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't hate me. I can confirm that Sirius Won't be on the run for too long.......
> 
> I enjoy that Bill, Charlie and Ron have all been more upset Percy is dating a Slytherin than a man....
> 
> comments and kudos make me very happy :)


	51. Chapter 51

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this is written on my phone, around the pool, in a villa in the south of France, so, if the formatting sucks then really not my fault!

Side on apparition was a strange feeling no matter how old you were, but it was really odd when you didn’t know it was coming. Sirius had managed to escape Azkaban with his wand luckily, but he hadn’t used or been subjected to magic for nearly a decade before that, and also had been under the impression there was no apparating on the grounds.

Sirius clutched his stomach to stop the nausea as Severus dropped his hand awkwardly.

They were in the open plan front room- kitchen- dining room of a massive house. Sirius didn’t recognise it but also somehow did.

 

Severus watched him awkwardly as Sirius looked around the kitchen in confusion for a few seconds and couldn’t place where he was.

It was familiar but he wasn’t even sure why before he saw the large windows that looked out over to a gardens he reconsidered very well.

His mouth fell open “p-Potter house?”

Severus had a completely flat tone “yep”

“You’ve taken me here, why?”

“It’s the most warded house in the country. Probably close to Hogwarts in all seriousness. As far as everyone knows, Jade and I still hate you, no one will look for you here”

Severus was clearly not thrilled by this whole turn of events but beckoned the Gryffindor man to follow him as he swept through the house, up the steps and into the first bedroom on the corridor, hands in his pockets and looking very unsettled.

“There’s four bedrooms on this floor, the one at the end has its own bathroom and that’s Harry’s. This one has a smaller one that’s just a loo, and there’s a bigger bathroom for the three bedrooms next door, with a shower and a bath. I gather Azkaban doesn’t let you clean up much. There’s towels in the bathroom... I’ll be downstairs”

Without much more Severus left, leaving Sirius feeling baffled in the corridor. He could see that walls had been moved to change the size and shape of the bedrooms, and that jade likely didn’t want to remind herself of James much.

 

After a long shower that left his skin pink and almost stinging, he had put on the jeans and plain white T-shirt that had been left outside the door for him, finding they fitted quite well, and had walked barefoot down to where the kitchen- living room was.

Severus was stirring something on the stove top on a large saucepan and glanced up as Sirius came in warily.

“Ah, good you’re back. I’m starving. We can talk over food”

Sirius didn’t know if he actually was hungry or if Severus was just aware that he hadn’t had a decent meal in a while, but a few seconds later there was two large plates of spaghetti Bolognese on the table and both the men sat down opposite each other on the enormous dining table. 

After several massive mouthfuls Sirius put his fork down a bit.

“Does Jade know I’m here?”

“Not yet”

“So you’ve done this without asking”

Severus shrugged “Essentially, yes. She asked me to help find somewhere to keep you safe until we can work out a plan. We both know Remus is hardly able to keep a secret, and Jade will only tell him to stop him asking. It’s better for everyone if she doesn’t know until term breaks up. We’ve got a child, she’s got enough to worry about”

There was a long silence as they both ate awkwardly and Sirius looked around slowly “this place looks amazing. I mean it looked amazing before but it looks... modern, I guess. You are both moving in at the end of the term?”

“Well it cost enough money I should hope it looks good. Yes, everything from her flat and my house is here that we wanted moved, everything else is at the school. James’s things are already here”

“I still can’t... it’s strange, being here, with a room for a James here... there’s been James Potter’s in this house for hundreds of years, though I gather he’s a Snape, or Greenlake-Snape..?”

“Just Snape”

“Oh”

They lapsed into silence again and Sirius swallowed “thank you. For this, for everything, for talking Jade down from probably killing me in the shack, for bringing me back to reality with the dementors, for bringing me here... thank you”

Severus glanced up briefly “in the nicest possible way, you don’t matter to me Sirius. You do however, matter to Jade, and she matters to me a great deal. You’re here being protected in my house because I love her, not because I care much about you. I feel sorry for the time in Azkaban, but I’ve got enough of my own issues at the moment, and there’s a bloody hippogriff in the garden apparently on top of everything”

Sirius nodded, understanding completely. 

 

After finishing their meals, Severus waved his wand and tea, milk and sugar appeared on the table. They both made their mugs up and Severus yawned a little “we need to think of a longer term plan, but for now, you’ll stay here. I don’t have the wingers to consider anything else tonight. It’s been.... it’s been one hell of a day. You need to sleep. The only think I’ll ask of you is that you don’t leave the boundaries so you’re not seen my muggles or wizards- it’s warded so you can be in the gardens front and back and no one will see you. Can you feed the hippogriff Jade’s put in the garden - don’t ask- and just don’t fuck up the library or potions rooms. You can use them just keep the orders as they are, it’s taken weeks to sort out”

“And that’s it. You’ll let me stay here, in your house, just like that?”

Severus sipped his tea “just like that”

Sirius blinked and then put his mug down “I’m sorry”

“Hmm?”

“For school-“

Severus looked awkward @I don’t need to hear it-“

“But-“

“Seriously. We were teenagers, you were a prick, I get it. If you’d not been that way I probably never would have ended up with Jade, so I can’t even stay annoyed at you for it. We’ve got bigger issues now frankly, like the fact that you’re here and only the two of us know”

“Why didn’t you just take me straight to the ministry?”

Severus looked baffled “because you’re not guilty”

The two men looked at each other before Severus looked back down at his food and continued eating.

After a few minutes Severus sat back, clearly full and most of his meal finished. He glanced at Sirius with a still wary expression and got up to take two beers out of the fridge and took the caps off before sitting down and taking a deep swig of his own before putting the other in front of Sirius.

“I always had an idea, my friend Claire and I discussed it at length a few times and it just never made sense to me. Don’t get me wrong I’ve never, ever liked you, but betraying James and Lily and putting Harry’s life in danger- whilst destroying Jade’s- was just never a possibility for me. I also... Jade was injured in the Attack on the Ministry, and you helped stitch her up, do you remember?”

Sirius nodded, wondering where this as heading and Severus continued “well she’s told me before that during that evening you told her that you knew I was the one who had passed the information the attack was planned on to her. I always questioned why you’d never used that information for yourself if what you were accused of was true”

“Ah, so it  was you that told her. She never really confirmed or denied it really”

The two men just looked at each other in half awkward, half comfortable silence.

 

-

 

The third years, Percy, Lucas, Remus and Jade had all been so tired that Harry had fallen asleep on Jade’s shoulder until Albus came back in the room to explain.

“Until we can guarantee that he will be given a fair trial, it is best that Sirius stays in hiding. Severus has agreed to sort this for us, as he is the least likely person that the ministry will question, and Jade and Remus, you are both too close to the situation. Severus will be back later once he has settled Sirius into the new location. I think as it is nearer sunrise than sunset from yesterday, the five students should go to bed. I don’t need to tell any of you that this evening never happened. You can discuss it with anyone in this room or Professor Snape, an not a single other person”

Everyone nodded and Lucas sleepily got himself to his feet “I don’t think anyone would believe us anyway headmaster”

Albus chuckled “that’s probably true”

-

 

The five students were walking along the deserted corridors, the two seventh years holding Ron on each side.

Lucas yawned “that made me feel like a secret agent getting debriefed at the end of a mission”

Ron laughed sleepily “I’d say you and Percy-“

His older brother rounded on him, dropping his arm that was helping to support him “honestly, shut the fuck up Ron, I don’t want to hear some stupid joke about me and Lucas ‘debriefing’ each other or being ‘under cover’ with each other or whatever dumb joke you had”

Ron just shrugged “they were both funnier than what I was going to say anyway”

Lucas just gave Percy a warm smile and they continued to help him limp between them.

 

The five students had all made it as far as the entrance hall together before Lucas had had to head down to the dungeons to head for the Slytherin dungeons.

Harry, Ron and Hermione had the wherewithal to quickly pretend to be having a conversation and facing the other way so that Percy could give Lucas a quick kiss before the dark blonde Slytherin disappeared down a corridor.

 

Madame Pomfrey wasn’t going to be around to sort Ron’s leg until the morning so Jade had found a numbing potion in Severus’ stores and he was going to have to just stick it out until the morning.

It was quite slow going with the four of them going up to Gryffindor tower but as they got in the common room Hermione headed up the steps for the girls and Harry was in front as Percy had said he’d help get Ron up the narrow steps.

 

Now it was just the two of them, Ron lagged behind “Perce?”

He turned, eyes a little cold “what?”

“It’s only a joke, I don’t care what you do with who, you know. I mean Lucas certainly seems more interesting than Penelope did. I’m just teasing, it’s not because I ‘don’t approve’ and even if I didn’t, you don’t need my approval do you”

Percy blinked “right... that’s pretty much what Bill and Charlie said anyway”

“Oh great does everyone know but me?”

“In the family it’s only Bill, Charlie and you. Mum and dad would probably disown me and I can’t be dealing with the twins and Ginny teasing me as well”

“Mate, I don’t think mum and dad would care, and the twins and Ginny would tease any of us for dating any human being even if they were Quidditch World Cup champions. If you’re happy then why do you care what other people think?”

“Because it’s two men, people will react... badly”

“Perce it’s not the 1700’s, and the wizarding world is miles ahead in terms of all that. Kingsley Shaklebolt has been married to a dude for like ten years Harry said. People have done stranger things than fall in love with a man. Anyway, I’m knackered, you still alright to help me up?”

-

 

As the sun began to rise, Jade was fast asleep on the sofa with James asleep in the bassinet beside the sofa, and Remus was still sat looking like he wanted the ground to swallow him up, pale and biting his nails in the armchair. The sound of the floo woke Jade and made her and Remus look up. 

Severus looked tired and managed a weak smile “he’s fine. Don’t worry. Are enough food to feed the school, and when I left he was asleep. Trust me, both of you, he’s absolutely fine”

Remus frowned “where did you take him?”

“That defeats the object of me not telling you or Jade doesn’t it. Neither of you can really be trusted not to go and visit him, so for now, it’s just between me, Albus and Sirius. Can you stop biting your nails Remus you’re going to end up bleeding soon”

“It’s my fault”

Jade was about to tell him it wasn’t but to her surprise it was Severus who got there first “it’s not. Lots of things just happened tonight. Albus is going to try and work something out to get Sirius a fair trial. Black doesn’t blame you, so stop blaming yourself. Now I’m going to bed, Remus you can have the spare room if you’re not up to going back to your own”

Jade smiled gently “you’re sure he’s okay?”

“Yes, honestly. He told me to tell you both ‘mischief managed’ if that means anything”

Severus didn’t ask for the explanation but saw Jade and Remus both smile a little at that and worked out it was part of some sort of code they’d all devised years ago ‘if you’re alright, have them pass on the code’.

Jade picked baby James up and sleepily trudged to the bedroom and Severus glanced to Remus, just the two of them in the room “There’s no shame in wanting to stay close to Jade tonight. The spare room is all made up. I’ll see you in the morning. Get some rest you look knackered”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your wall amazing. Thanks for reviewing and commenting and giving me kudos. Makes me very happy!
> 
> I just loved the idea of Sirius and Severus having to play nice with each other


	52. Chapter 52

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So i'm back in England now after a great holiday so we're finally ready for this chapter. Sorry it took so long but I was too relaxed to do anything!  
> So there's a little hint at something in here and we'll see if anyone can spot it.....

Jade slept heavily, but only after Severus had told her Remus was staying with them that night and reassuring her for the tenth time that Sirius was safe.

When Severus woke up, he was curled around Jade, and she in turn had her arms gently resting near baby James. He was snoozing gently on the bed and he realised that he must have woken in the night and in her tiredness Jade hadn’t been able to move him off the bed after breastfeeding him.

James was asleep pretty much in a starfish position, arms above his head and breathing gently and peacefully in time with Jade, her long curly dark brown hair splayed over the pillow. He curled tighter into her for a second, the familiar scent of her perfume and shampoo comforting to him after the long, long evening the day before.

 

It wasn’t much later that James stirred and then it woke Jade up.

Severus slipped off the bed to sort his son out and give Jade a few extra minutes to pull herself out of the deep sleep she had been in.

After he had changed and re- dressed James, Jade was blearily awake and looked at him with a sad expression.

“I can’t believe Peter got away...”

He sighed sadly as James held tightly onto his finger “we’ll sort it, I promise”

When she’d found out about Jade and Severus dating, Minerva had simply said to Severus ‘never promise her anything you can’t keep’ as words of advice. He was for a minute terrified that he had done just that but pushed it as far back in his mind as he could manage.

-

Remus had re-dressed in his clothes from the night before and was sat on the sofa with a worried expression.

Jade had just stayed in her pyjamas and Severus had pulled a dressing gown around himself and looked over the two adults and the baby, clearly also exhausted “I’ll get the house elves to bring some food down. I don’t think any of us are up to the great hall this morning. I’ll be back in a minute”

Remus glanced at Severus as he moved back into the bedroom and the sound of the bathroom door closing and the shower turning on could be heard.

“You know, he really is a good guy isn’t he”

Jade smiled, glancing at James in her arms “we certainly think so, don’t we, eh. You think Daddy’s nice do you?”

Remus pulled a face “ugh don’t refer to him as daddy, I know it’s for the baby but it feels horribly **_sexual_** ”

Jade smirked “you don’t want to know what I call him when we have sex”

Remus looked visibly nauseous at that idea and Jade just laughed.

When Severus came back out he was casually dressed and looked a bit more awake and when the food came they all picked at it. They didn’t sit in complete silence but it wasn’t exactly a great conversation either, and Severus made it clear he wasn’t telling either of them where Sirius was so they’d stopped asking.

 

When Remus was leaving Severus caught up to him and pressed something into his hand “give this to Harry. I had Black sign it last night, night cheer him up or something”

Remus glanced at the paper and saw it was a signed Hogsmeade permission slip with Sirius Black signed in ridiculously elaborate letters at the bottom.

“Well, well, Well, Severus Snape does have a heart”

He smirked slightly “just don’t let anyone know, ruins the facade. I’ll see you later”

Without another word he turned and wakes back over to baby James, picking his fussing son up from the play mat and slowly bobbing him around.

—

 

Later that morning, Jade had baby James in a wrap on her chest and he was fast asleep, the gentle rocking of her movement just after a feed was enough to lull him to sleep easily.

She’s felt restless and Severus had gone off to talk to Slughorn and had gone down to the greenhouses.

It was the weekend so there were no classes on and she had the doors open as she tended to some of the plants in the lower greenhouse.

She felt a bit lost after all that had happened over the last 24 hours and so needed to settle her thoughts and tending to the plants was helping that.

For a while there was silence until she heard a knock at the door.

Lucas Farris was stood in jeans and a England Quidditch hoodie, clearly still tired and absently scratched at the stubble on his chin as he clearly hadn’t bothered shaving in a few days and Jade felt it made him look like the adult that he technically was at 18 now, rather than a student.

Lucas looked awkward “can I speak to you a second professor?”

His expression was earnest and she nodded “close the door behind you then”

He did and she cast a silencing spell around them “everything okay?”

“It’s about what happened, with Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew I just... I think I could have done more”

“Not at all Lucas. You were amazing”

“I’m in the auror programme from September and I let him get away”

“That’s not how these things work. Don’t blame yourself. Sirius doesn’t blame you. I don’t blame you. You acted quickly and without hesitation to help save the life of people you barely know. That’s bravery. You cast a patronus when confronted with hundreds of dementors for the first time. You did a good job Lucas”

He swallowed “because of who my father is I always worry that I won’t be.... good enough......”

“Look, Daniel McLeish is not a good guy, I can say that. Your actions last night to defend those around you showed me 100 times over that you’re not like him. Your stepfather is clearly a good influence on you”

“Yeah. He’s pretty good... Um, is Sirius Black, is he okay?”

Jade nodded, a hand gently on James as he stirred a little in the wrap on her chest “Yes, I don’t know where he is but Severus has told me he is fine. Severus and Sirius never got on at school, but he’s doing this for me, Sirius was like a brother to me, and thinking he had betrayed m family nearly killed me. You know, I lost two of my best friends at the same time I lost James, Lily, and I thought Sirius had killed Peter at the same time, and it was an awful time really. Having Sirius back is just…. I can’t wrap my head around it”

“That must have been awful. Your friends were Gideon and Fabian weren’t they… I’m meant to be starting the auror programme in September and my father killed one of their best members”

“Listen, Lucas, you had a recommendation from me and from Alastor Moody to get on that programme. Both me and Alastor knew your connection to Daniel McLeish when we did it, so it’s none of anyone else’s business. We were a team, Gideon, Fabian, me and Moody, and so if we are happy for you to join the programme, anyone with an issue can come to me if they have a problem with it”

Lucas looked calmed a little and nodded, clearly distracted “Thanks professor. He’s a cute kid by the way”

Jade glanced down at the sleepy baby on her chest and smiled “I’m a bit biased, but I do think he’s pretty cute. Now, you need to keep your mind off of all of this, you and Percy were sort of dropped in at the deep end last night”

“He’s with Fred and George, he’s got himself convinced that Ron will tell the twins about me and him, even though Ron doesn’t care. He’s up there now and telling the twins we’ve been together for a while, I tried to talk him out of it but Perce is quite determined and I don’t want to fight him about it”

Jade smiled at him “You’re very lucky to have found each other. I think you’re both so driven that you’d just annoy anyone else to be honest”

Lucas laughed “Thanks. Do you want any help Professor? I need something to keep my mind occupied”

Jade glanced around the greenhouse “If you want to help then knock yourself out”

\--

Several floors up in the castle, Percy was biting his lip so hard that he could feel a tinge if blood before letting it go. He was in an empty classroom with the twins, having asked them if they could all have a word in a quiet place.

Fred frowned “you alright Percy, you look like you’re going to explode”

George looked equally concerned “just spit it out, or you’ll combust on the spot”

“It’s about Lucas Farris”

“The Slytherin Prefect in your year?”

“What about him?”

“We’ve been... we’re.... together......................... if you know what I mean”

Fred looked bored “Oh is that it? I thought we had some serious gossip going on here”

“What are you talking about Fred? This is, this is a big deal”

George shrugged “I’m sure it is mate but we saw the two of you snogging in a corridor a few months ago when we were sneaking around after curfew one evening. You didn’t tell us so we kinda thought it was some sort of thing you wanted to keep a secret. If that’s it can we go? We’ve got something planned”

Percy just started between each of the twins “you don’t care?”

Fred looked bored again “I can honestly tell you I’ve got so many other things going on than who you’re getting off with. Anyway, we’ve known for most of the year, what we caught you doing didn’t leave much room for questions”

Percy went a bit pink “What was...”

George grinned “well you were snogging his face off in a deserted corridor and you had your hand in his trousers. I don’t know about you Fred but I don’t do that with my friends do you?”

“No mate, I don’t think me and Lee snog and rub-“

“Alright, Alright, I get it. Ron, Bill And Charlie know by the way”

“You told mum yet?”

“No, I’m waiting till I’m moving out, just in case it’s.... not well received”

Fred blinked “you think mum is going to care? God you’re not as clever as you think you are, are you”

George looked beyond bored now “Right well, we’re off to cause havoc big brother. See you later” He clapped his baffled looking Head Boy brother on the shoulder and left the room as Fred did a mock salute to him “You need to be less uptight mate, that goes for your entire life not just Lucas. I mean, yes he’s a Slytherin, but he seems like a rare nice one at least. See ya”

\--

 

It was early afternoon when Jade had met back up with Severus when he came back t their rooms and she had a quick shower and put James down for a nap and Severus stayed with their son as she headed up to see Albus.

She hadn’t made an appointment but he always seemed to be available when he was needed, and indeed was sat at his desk and smiling at her when Jade came in and sat rather heavily and dramatically in the spare empty chair.

Albus smiled gently “I have spoken to Sirius today, he seems quite happy”

Jade nodded in a way that made it clear she wasn’t really listening “hmmm yes”

Albus looked over his glasses at her “Jade, are you planning something stupid?”

She laughed a little at that “always”

Albus gave her a slightly disapproving look “I’m not going to tell you where Sirius is just yet. If that’s what you’re here for I want to make that clear as early as possible”

Jade shook her head “I know. I’ll give it all away running straight to him and Remus is just as bad. No actually, Remus is worse. I just... I’ve spent so long resenting the wrong man. I lost two brothers in a short time, and now I’ve got one back and I can’t give him his freedom and I can’t see him. It’s horrible. I’d usually speak to Severus but I can’t because he’s the one hiding Sirius, can’t speak to Remus as he’s so cut up with blaming himself. I can’t go to Kingsley because without proof I’m hugely breaking the law, then there’s the one person who’s always been a good listener is Alastor but that situation is still........... difficult”

Albus gave her a sharp look and Jade assumed he knew the entire situation between the two of them.

“I was under the impression that you two were on better ground recently?”

“We are getting on better it’s just......... he’s been the one person who has hated Sirius more than me for the last ten years, you know? He has always looked out for me, and he’s fought so hard to make sure people like McLeish, Bellatrix and Sirius were in and stayed in prison. He’s given up his own time and things to put right against the people he saw that had hurt me, even through the time we weren’t talking because of ............................ things he worried about me telling people. Nothing illegal, and it’s silly, but for Alastor his private life is incredibly private and he is terrified I’ll start spreading his secrets. I can’t tell Alastor, not yet at least”

“He’s a n intensely private man, always has been, and was very strict with rules, surprising since he was terrible at following them when he was a student”

Jade smiled gently and glanced at the window distractedly “the only rule he had for anyone in a team was not to date anyone or fall in love with anyone you worked with.... anyway, it doesn’t matter now”

Albus tapped the desk gently “your muggle friend and his wife Claire, the witch, you can speak to them if you want. Severus has told me he trusts them implicitly. They knew about him during the war and didn’t give him up”

Jade just nodded slowly “When can I see him? Sirius?”

“Term finishes in a few weeks, until then Severus will look after him, and after that, you can see him. You need to try not to draw attention to the situation”

Jade looked distracted as she nodded slowly “Okay. I just can’t lose him again Albus”

\--

 

Darkness was starting to creep in as the sun was setting and Sirius had fed the hippogriff and was wondering back up to the house when he saw some of the lights turn on and a figure moving around.

As they weren’t attacking him he had a pretty good idea it was Severus coming to check up on him.

Hands in his pockets -though with a tight grip on his wand just in case- he walked back over the grounds to Potter House, entering through the large folding kitchen doors.

Severus was stood there in just black trousers and a dark blue t-shirt with long sleeves and two large bags of food on the kitchen island and a calculating look on his face as he looked at Sirius.

“There’s this muggle place a few towns over that does a fantastic curry and you’ve been eating prison food for a decade so I didn’t trust your palette to do any cooking”

“That’s probably fair”

They just looked each other for a second before moving.

They just arranged all the food on the table and had a plate each and helped themselves in silence that was broken unsurprisingly by Sirius.

“You don’t have to wear sleeves around me all the time you know”

“Hmm?”

“The dark mark, I know it’s there, it’s not like I’ll be shocked”

Severus stilled a little but then continued unloading the cartons of food “I’m just quite used to it now, when I’m around Wizards”

Sirius shrugged “whatever floats your boat”

They ate in silence for a while before Sirius yet again cut in.

 “I don’t get why you’re in love with her”

Severus glanced up “yes you do. What you don’t understand is how she can love me back”

He didn’t seem too annoyed about it, and Sirius realised how bad he sounded and glanced away.

“When you put it like that, I sound awful”

Severus just shrugged and sat back in the chair running a hand through his hair to push it back off his face.

“No, I’ve asked myself that for over a decade, I understand”

“I just don’t understand how she kept it from me and James”

Severus raised an eyebrow “really? It wasn’t that hard. Firstly, she’s one of the brightest witches in our year, but also quick and intelligent, not just book smart, she was quicker than both of you combined. Also, there’s the fact that you two were always off doing something stupid, so it provided excellent cover as you were so distracted, and then she could just take that stupid map, which meant you didn’t know where she was and she could see your movements. It really wasn’t as difficult as you’d image. Lots of our friends knew”

“Other people knew and didn’t tell us?”

Severus smirked a little “uhuh. Frank Longbottom and Jade did that herbalist paper for Sprout and all that time just the two of them in the greenhouse- of course she told him. Anyway, we had a circle of friends who were  ** _our_**  friends and had no loyalty to you or James or the Marauders, so didn’t care at all about telling you. I think some of them quite enjoyed it really”

Sirius pouted a little and thought before glancing up “wait, if you’re saying Jade’s friends knew then did Martha?”

Severus nodded “uhuh. She’s always known”

“Why didn’t she say anything? We were dating for ages”

“Because maybe she thought it was none of your business?”

Sirius looked mollified “no you’re right, of course you are... Merlin’s beard”

Severus had a rather smug smirk on his face and ate some more before Sirius asked “thank you for letting me hold James back at Hogwarts, it meant a lot. I missed out on Harry growing up and only held him a few times before....... everything.... it really broke me seeing in the Prophet that she had given birth before I’d had a chance to prove anything. I was so scared that she might never know, that James and Harry would always think I was the reason.... Well, what I mean is thanks”

Severus looked a bit awkward and not too sure what to say so glanced back at his poppadom “um, it’s okay. Jade’s not going to stop until you’ve been proven innocent, so I’m sure you’ll be spending a rather unfortunate amount of time with my family after that”

There wasn’t any real malice in his voice and Sirius let out a half laugh as they both went back to their food for a while until Sirius glanced up.

“Tell me about Jade”

“What do you mean? You knew her better than me”

“Until we were 21 yes, but we’re not in our 20’s anymore, and she’s been through a lot hasn’t she. Did she ever make it up with Alastor?”

Severus shook his head “no. We don’t know what it was all about either. They’re talking and get on okay enough now, but they weren’t exactly talking for a long time beyond work. I don’t know what happened”

“I have a pretty good idea. I knew a few things about Mad Eye’s private life that really weren’t bad but when you’re as private as him it’s probably embarrassing. Also he was breaking the only rule he set for people in his team so I think that’s he bigger issue”

Severus just nodded “she’s achieved a lot, not that it’s much of a surprise”

“Not really. She was always too smart for her own good, and very loyal. She worked out about Remus’s condition right when we did and all she did was order him some mail order potions to help him afterwards. James always said she was destined to be great”

“She’s her own worst enemy you know. Nearly pissed off the entire Wizengamot at 19 when she forced them to listen to her proposal for werewolf rights. James and I were just in awe the entire time, she actually made all these stuff old idiots listen. Didn’t make the progress she wanted but massive steps in the right direction. I always worried that she’d endanger her own life trying to help someone else”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the kudos and comments they keep me going.
> 
> Anyone get the hint to Moody's secret? Hmmm
> 
> And for everyone worried, of course Jade is planning something dumb to get Sirius free!


	53. Chapter 53

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, shit is hitting the fan in 3, 2, 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is such a long chapter but I thought if I had a super short chapter just up to the first bit in bold, you would all absolutely kill me!  
> This hasn't been checked through as much as I would like but it's so long it has taken me forever and ever to get through!

At Potter House, in the early morning, Severus came down the stairs looking puzzled “Jade’s not upstairs. I don’t think she’s in the house, Dobby’s been looking after JJ. Have you seen her?”

Sirius was sat in front of the tv on the sofa and turned around looking baffled “No, maybe she’s apparated somewhere?”

“But… where, and why not tell one of us? Just seems a bit-”

The kitchen doors were folded back and open, so both men could see across the garden and saw that Buckbeak was looking distressed and moving around a little agitatedly down by the vegetable patch and Sirius and Severus looked at each other sharply.

Both men pulled out their wands and stalked out into the gardens. They lilted upwards as Sirius and Severus hurried quietly around the building and glanced at each other warily.

The wards only alerted Severus if it was someone without access. As far as he was concerned, only Sirius, Jade, himself, Claire and Jacob were able to access the wards without needing to be ‘allowed’ entrance by one of them. There had been no notification to Severus that the wards had been breached or that anyone was trying to enter, and Jade wasn’t in the house so he wasn’t expecting to see anything or anyone on the other side of the building.

The front garden to the house sloped down a little, and both men stopped short, panic in their eyes.

Alastor Moody, Rufus Scrimgeour and Kingsley Shaklebolt were at the front of the huge mass of aurors, Sirius guessed maybe 30 wands were pointed at him and Severus.

No one moved until Sirius dropped his wand to his side, looking defeated as his shoulders slumped and his entire body just showed that he had given up, his entire posture changing immediately.

Severus wavered for a second and Rufus’s voice carried over the grass between them “Give up Severus, we really don’t want this to end badly”

He looked at Sirius but the former Gryffindor just shrugged a little, voice incredibly quiet “Just give up, Severus, please, don’t make this harder than it has to be”

The other aurors remained where they were after a muttered word from Moody before he, Rufus and Kingsley walked over to the two men, an awkward standoff between the three Aurors and Severus who was gripping his wand so tightly his knuckles were white and he radiated anger and confusion, and Sirius who barely had a hold of his own wand, and looked like a lost child, completely given up and completely checked out.

Rufus Scrimgeour looked a little awkward and looked to Severus with an unreadable expression, voice level

“I’ve been told to tell you to leave the baby with the House Elf. Your friends the Issa’s have been notified and are coming to look after the boy within the hour. Claire and Jacob I think?”

Severus glanced at the house and back at Rufus quickly “No, but-“

“You won’t be back home anytime soon, Snape. Neither of you”

Sirius was still apparently unable to talk, and Severus felt he was shaking a little “How did you get through the wards?”

Kinglsey answered “how do you think? Jade gave us the location of Sirius Black _and_ how to find him”  


**_-TWO WEEKS PREVIOUSLY-_**  
  
Jade woke up drenched in sweat and breathing heavily.

Severus grumbled and woke up slightly, voice thick with sleep “what happened? What’s wrong?”

Jade just shook her head, and glanced at her watch, seeing that it was only half an hour before she needed to be up anyway and rolled out of bed and padded barefoot into the bathroom, the sound of the door closing and shower turning on telling Severus very clearly that this conversation was over.

Once she came out in a towel, Jade rubbed her eyes and blinked, trying to clear her vision before realising that was just how it was going to be for the day.

She swore under her breath and started loudly rooting around in her bedside drawer for something before Severus rolled over “what do you need?”

“Nothing”

He rolled his eyes a little and watched as she pulled out a pair of glasses from the drawer and put them on. In all the time they had known each other she had only worn her glasses maybe 20 or 30 times and they had known each other for two decades. They only came out when she was impossibly tired and it was clear things weren’t quite as okay as she was trying to make out.

They were basic black frames and Severus thought she looked quite like a sexy secretary but judging by the way she had been for the last week he gathered that wasn’t going to go down well.

They suited her, and were clearly better than James and Harry’s though neither of them had cared much about fashion.

Severus had a joke about shit eyesight being a family trait but Jade was somehow changing angrily and so he dropped it.

She was pulling on clothes with a huff and he watched silently. They spent every night lying next to each other in bed but it was like a little chasm was opening up between them and getting larger and larger constantly.

There was affection there still but Sirius had been in hiding for several weeks and Jade just had an overwhelming, crushing guilt that had made her quite absent and withdrawn. She still wasn’t allowed to see Sirius and whilst all the students involved seemed to have gone back to normal, Remus and Jade were obviously struggling.

Remus was still teaching and sort of limping through the last few weeks of term, and Severus had been surprised that it was Jade who was managing worse of the two of them.

She was only teaching here and there, with Sprout agreeing to stay on until the end of the term so Jade could spend more time with baby James, who Sirius had referred to as JJ and now Severus was saying it, and it seemed that was what everyone was calling him.

Jade still loved Severus, that wasn’t in any question. At night they got into bed and she curled up and only slept when he was holding her, but the nightmares were back, and JJ was still waking up several times in the night and then when she was managing to sleep when he was asleep, her quality of sleep was pretty bad with the repeated nightmares.

They hadn’t discussed if it was dreams, things she was imagining, or terrible memories but Jade always acted like nothing had happened.

She was dressed and being very heavy handed as she shut drawers too hard and Severus rolled out of bed.

“We can get breakfast here today. JJ is still asleep, there’s no need for us to wake him up”

“Sure”

“You’ve taught them well. Revision is on their own heads, if they have done enough of it then they will pass today”

Jade nodded a little “No, I know, you’re right, it’s just… Well, I was worried with everyone else having their herbology exams, the final year students, you know, it matters more, this is their gateway into their lives. Lucas and Percy both have jobs and internships lined up at the Ministry that they’ll loose without god grades in this exam, and they’ve been so distracted by what happened with Sirius I’m a bit worried about them”

“Farris and Wealsey are two of the best students in their year by a mile. They will be absolutely fine. You’ve taught them well, you’ve taught them _all_ well”

Jade appeared a little calmed and fiddled with the sleeve of her top “Look, Sev, I’m sorry I’ve been… a bit of a bitch recently. I love you, honestly I do. You have given me JJ and you’ve given me everything I ever wanted, it’s not you, it’s just been hard”

He moved over and kissed her gently “I know, I wanted to take you to see the house later. There’s only a few days left of term and I’ve sorted some last minute additions to some of the rooms”

Jade smiled gently “You know what, that sounds perfect actually”

Severus didn’t think it was the time to explain that the _‘last minute additions’_ to the House was actually Sirius Black and that he had been sleeping at Potter House since the day they had found out the truth. Jade seemed to have convinced herself Sirius was living in some dirty little cave, alone and cold, when in fact he had been in her palatial family home, with two fridges full of food, a stocked pantry bigger than most peoples bedrooms, and they had even managed to make a Muggle Tv work so he was more than comfortable.

It was the last week of term, and exams for all years and all subjects had been in full swing for about ten days but it was the last day for Herbology exams, and the final year students would be going in to the exam in a few hours and Jade was nervous. She hadn’t seen any of the gradings yet but there were some students she knew had done well, Luna Lovegood, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, Cormac McLaggen, Ginny Weasley, Blaise Zabini among them, even Oliver Wood had really got his grades up over the last few months. Jade expected Harry had done ‘ _okay_ ’ on his exams, but wasn’t expecting him to get full marks by any means, he tried hard but it wasn’t a subject that came naturally to him, and she fondly remembered that her brother had been the same.

Lucas and Percy should have been able to get full marks on every exam with their eyes closed, but not being able to stop Peter escaping and Sirius having to go into hiding had obviously affected them both, though it was Lucas who seemed to be blaming himself the most.

 

Severus and Jade had had breakfast together fairly quickly and Jade fed JJ and put him in a wrap on her chest as usual and it didn’t take too long for that to send him drifting off again.

The potions exams were mostly practical so had to go down and be there with Slughorn as it was the final year exams for his students as well and that meant a lot of nervy students and a lot of explosions.

Jade wasn’t overseeing her exams as it was all done by the exam board but she wanted to be there to give some words of encouragement before they went in, as she had done with every Herbology exam for every year group so far.

Some of them had seemed overly confident, and Jade had a good idea of their abilities and knew they were just being more cocky than their abilities, and some like Neville, who probably at 13 knew more about magical plants and fauna than most adult wizards, had looked like they were going to vomit on the floor.

Jade kissed Severus quickly before they both headed off to different ends of the castle and she headed down to the greenhouses. Despite most teachers always wearing robes when in the castle and seeming very uptight, everyone was very used to seeing Jade wearing jeans and quidditch team tops and walking around with her baby. As she wasn’t actually teaching that da she was just wishing them all luck, none of the other teachers really cared much what she wore either.

 

The final year students all looked a little peaky and most of them looked calmed at Jade quietly telling them they were going to do really well before they filed in to the greenhouse.

Percy and Lucas were at the back of the group and Percy looked quietly confident, squeezing Lucas’s hand before walking in.

That left a sleeping JJ, nauseous looking Lucas and Jade, who gave him a warm smile.

“Lucas, you can do literally anything you put your mind to. You produced an incredibly strong patronus for someone your age. You faced down with a man you thought was a murderer, you tried to protect some teenagers when faced with someone we all thought would turn into a werewolf, you have kept secrets and you have kept your friends safe and you have kept my friend safe. Now go in there, ace this exam, and start the Auror programme in September, alright. Make me proud there?”

With a new resolve, Lucas nodded, taking a deep breath “Yes, you’re right, I can do this. Thanks Professor”

“Anytime, now hurry up”

-

The exams were over by lunch time, and that meant that both Jade and Severus were free. They technically were both heads of houses so couldn’t just move back home until the last of the other exams for other subjects were over and the students had left, but neither had any teaching left so were pretty much free to go as they pleased.

Lucas had said the exam went well which made her feel better and Severus could see that there was a warmth and a spark back to Jade, which he was grateful for.

Jacob and Claire had agreed with Severus that they would look after JJ for an hour or two and then meet them at Potter House with him and their own son and maybe cook some dinner or something.

They had used the floo to drop JJ off and then apparated just outside of the wards and walked up the beautiful front lawn to the house.

Jade had a practical glow about her that simply reminded him of why he had fallen in love with her. They hadn’t had sex since the birth which was fine.

He more than understood that giving birth had been draining, as was breastfeeding, and then everything with Sirius had come along and rocked the boat even further, so Jade hadn’t exactly been in the mood.

He hadn’t really thought about how he was going to tell her that Sirius was in the house but she was through the door first, kicking the heavy front door closed behind her and then turning and pulling him down for a hard kiss.

Severus wasn’t one to turn Jade down and so kissed her back but quickly realised where she wanted this to be headed, especially as she had no idea who else was in the house.

Jade was kissing Severus and he tried to pull back a bit but Jade kissed him again and he groaned a little “I don’t think-“

Jade just kissed him again and then pulled off her top, standing there in jeans a black bra before leaning up to kiss him again “shall we go upstairs?”

Severus settled his hands on her hips “Jade I really don’t think that’s a good idea. Can you put your top back on please?”

Jade just laughed, walking into the main room as he followed “don’t you want to - **_FUCK_**!”

Severus winced, clearly she had spotted Sirius then.

As he looked he saw the Gryffindor sat on the large L shaped sofa watch tv, feet up, wearing a pair of black tracksuit bottoms and a grey T-shirt, a bowl of popcorn balanced on his lap, a wide smirk and a gleefully raised eyebrow “put some clothes on Potter, Jesus Christ. How are you still so flat chested even after having a baby?”

She pulled the top back on and looked between the two men, Severus with his contrite and apologetic face and Sirius just looking smug.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. You’ve had him here all this time?”

Sirius put the bowl down and stood up with a wry grin “Don’t take it out on him J, to be fair no one is going to just walk through the wards around this place are they?”

Jade was silent and just moved over the room and hugged him tightly “god I’ve missed you so much”

Sirius was a similar height to Severus and so could see right over the top of her head and the two men exchanged knowing smiles.

After a minute Jade pulled back, holding Sirius’s face in her hands and just looking at him “I’ve been so scared you were somewhere horrible and you’ve been here, you’ve been happy?”

“Yes Bug, I’ve been fine, honestly, more than fine, your toy boy has been looking after me, we’ve had about a million pizzas and Chinese takeaways”

Severus’s tone was dry as always “Boy toy? I’m older than her by two months”

Jade laughed with a few years in her eyes and turned back towards Severus, who looked wary as she stalked over to him, clearly worried she was going to slap him for doing something so recklessly dangerous but instead she just gripped his face and kissed him, hard.

When she pulled back he looked puzzled and she just smiled “You put yourself in danger, for Sirius, for me, you – you’re amazing, you know that”

“I do try”

Her only response was a blistering kiss and then Sirius muttering something about them getting a room.

-  


It was a few hours later when Jacob and Claire arrived with their toddler Thomas who immediately ran off through the house to play on the sofa, and holding JJ who Jade took and cuddled, leaving Severus at the door with the Issa’s

Jacob narrowed his eyes slightly “Why are you looking so happy Sev? Did you get laid?”

He laughed and shook his head “Um, no. There’s a few things I need to fill you both in on. Uh, Claire, you were right, we were right about Sirius Black’s story, it didn’t add up because of Peter. Peter was alive, he was an animagus all this time, I saw him”

Jacob looked non-plussed and Claire’s eyes widened “Well… shit…. I think we’ve got some catching up to do”

“Actually, there’s someone here I’d really love you to meet”

-

Standing in the open plan kitchen, Claire and Jacob both looked at Sirius with very different expressions.

Claire looked shocked and amazed, and Jacob just mumbled “cool tattoos”.

Claire elbowed her husband to shut him up and managed a weak smile “Well, it is pretty weird seeing you here, I’ll be honest. I, well, Severus and I always thought the story with Peter was a bit off, but I never imagined he’d be the one hiding you out”

Sirius was trying to place her face “were you in our year? Hufflepuff?”

“Yes”

“Oh, you were one of the ones who hung around with Bug and the Longbottoms!”

Jacob frowned, finally working out what was going on “oh you’re the one who was in the prison?”

Sirius looked at him with amazement “uh, yes”  
“Don’t mind my husband, he’s a muggle and really not interested in the Daily Prophet unless it’s about Jade and Severus”

Jacob just smiled “Well, looks like we’ve got some catching up to do”

-

Hours later, Thomas was sprawled asleep on the sofa and lying on Jade as she spoke to Jacob and Claire, and JJ was sound asleep in his cot which they had used magic to move down into the living room so they could see him.

They had been talking too much to consider cooking so Severus had gone to a Muggle town and just got a load of pizzas instead.

 

Sirius was outside on the patio having a cigarette and watching the sunset. He wasn’t much of a smoker except when he had been heavily drinking, but after all that time in prison he was relishing being able to do whatever the he wanted whenever he wanted – albeit within the grounds of Potter House.

When Severus came out to check on him, Sirius just laughed, “You know I find your personal life fascinating”

Severus glanced up “hmm?”

“Well, your best friend is a muggle”

“Do you have an issue with muggles?”

Sirius laughed at that “no, of course not. I just mean that considering what side you were on in the war, and that Mark on your forearm, it’s quite funny really”

“Well, people change. To be honest he was my friend during the war too”

“Your heart wasn’t really in it then”

“I’m not a pure blood”

Sirius frowned “really?”

“My mum was a witch. Dad was a muggle”

Sirius let his eyebrows raise “I really don’t know you do I?”

Severus shrugged “no, I guess you don’t”  
  
-  


They’d had to go back to the castle that night so Jade had hugged Sirius for what seemed like forever and he had had a quick cuddled with JJ, such a fond look on his face even Severus felt a little touched.

Claire and Jacob had stayed behind to stay over as Thomas was completely asleep and they had slept in one of the spare rooms with him.

Jade had told Remus, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Lucas and Percy about seeing Sirius and that he was more than happy. They’d all been quite relieved and Jade was counting down the days until the term officially finished, which was two more days, and she could move back to Potter House and work on his defence.

Harry had to go back to the Dursley’s as expected, but that was only going to be for a week or two, so he wasn’t even that bothered as he would get to live in Potter House with Sirius, Jade and JJ, he had even come around to the fact that Severus was going to be there.

Remus had been able to go and visit Sirius if he wanted but Jade got the impression that he was nervous about seeing him again in a 1 on 1 environment and didn’t push it.

Then on the final day of the term, it came out that he was a werewolf. Jade was convinced she knew exactly _which_ of the former governors of the school had leaked it but she wasn’t too sure and Remus had just calmly accepted it.

There hadn’t exactly been an outcry from the students, in fact most of them seemed more annoyed that he wasn’t going to be teaching him the following year than aghast at his condition, which was at least a relief to everyone.

Albus said there was no news on Peter and had promised to keep Jade and Severus updated.

 

The students had gone back home and Harry had gone to the Dursleys and Percy had moved immediately into a flat with Lucas. Thanks t o using the floo and apparating it didn’t matter that their flat was quite a way outside of London, they were going to be able to commute easily into the Ministry.

Ginny, Molly and Arthur didn’t know that Lucas and Percy were dating, and his parents were glad he had found a good friend, and as they had a two bedroom flat – as they were so far outside London that were able to afford a bigger place with a room for storage- his parents assumed they were just flatmates.

Lucas’s mother and step father knew the two young men were dating and honestly didn’t care in the slightest, but Percy hadn’t managed to tell his parents et for fear of what they might say.

-

It was a week after everyone had left the school and Jade, Severus and JJ had moved back to Potter House with Sirius, she had sent a rather threatening message to the Dursley’s about looking after Harry until they could get him, and Jade had asked to see Lucas and Percy.

They had invited her for tea at their flat which was still full of unpacked boxes and just looked very free and happy, though Lucas asked three times if she knew when the exam results were coming out but she didn’t.

Over the table, Jade sipped her tea and glanced at a rather perplexed Lucas and Percy as she tapped the mug with her right hand, her mother’s ring on her middle right finger tapping against the China.  
“About that night, at Hogwarts, when we found the two of you both in the corridor in the middle of the night-”  
The two boys - ** _men_** , she had to remind herself that they weren’t students anymore- looked at each other and Jade waved a hand dismissively

“I don’t care what you were doing as you were both of age and if it was something that was breaking the rules then honestly, I don’t give a shit alright. It’s about what happened that night. I’m going to do something really, really stupid, and you both might get asked about what you saw that night... I wanted to tell you first”

Lucas glanced at Percy and it was an unspoken conversation before they both nodded and Percy answered “We’ll do it, if it gets Sirius Black free, we’ll do anything”

“I wouldn’t do anything without the offer of immunity etcetera for you both. _Technically_ you were both of age so probably should have reported that the most wanted prisoner in the wizarding world was at my house and all that jazz”

“To be fair we didn’t know he was at your house”

“The wizengamot isn’t going to give a shit if you knew _where_ he was, the fact you knew Severus had him somewhere and did nothing is probably not a great thing. I know how they work, it’s quite…. Severe….. you will just be witnesses, not suspects or anything”

Percy took his glasses off and cleaned them on his t-shirt “Uh, are they the ones who sent you to Azkaban?”

“Yep. I mean, they’re not all the exact same people, but it was them, so I’ve not got great memories of going there, and they will search my mind, which is frankly not good, but I have to do it”

Percy put his glasses back on “Well, you don’t. Sirius is living at your house right now, quite happily, and if you go to the Wizengamot, there’s a chance you will both be in a shit load of trouble. Again”

“Perce, I have to try. Neither of you have to do anything you don’t want to. You can walk away if you want”

Lucas shrugged “I’ll do it. I’ve been feeling so much guilt that……….. I have to do this”

Percy glanced at his boyfriend but didn’t say anything, biting the inside of his cheek.

 

**_ BACK TO TWO WEEKS LATER- _ **

  
The Wizengamot was deathly silent, the black clad witches and wizards looking down at Jade with interest. No one ever _requested_ to be seen in the court by them, let alone with such short notice.

Every single one of them knew who Jade was, her history, but not why she was there.

A voice echoed around the chamber “State your name for the court”

“Jade Cassiopeia Greenlake, formerly Potter. Senior Auror, Herbology Professor at Hogwarts”

“Very well, you’ve called us here today in highly irregular circumstances. Please can you explain what you wanted us for?”

Jade took a deep breath, remembering what she had said to her twin brother the last time she had been with Sirius and James before he had been killed, where James had been convinced he was going to die soon, and had made Jade and Sirius promise that they would take care of each other if it was just the two of them left.

“Around two decades ago my brother met the man who ended up causing his death. That man wasn’t Peter Pettigrew, and I can prove it”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know. I'm terrible.  
> You're probably all there like 'Kit you're awful' and yeah, I know.
> 
> So before anyone says Sirius is being mean, he's not, they have always taken the piss out of each other, I don't think he has it in him not to gently mock her at every moment.
> 
> Up next.... trial, trial and more trial


End file.
